


cat's out of the bag

by 5ataen



Series: a little secrecy never hurt anyone [4]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Bang Chan is Whipped, Bang Chan is a Sweetheart, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Fluff, Lee Felix (Stray Kids) is Whipped, Lee Felix (Stray Kids) is a Little Shit, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, just a dash dont worry, mentions & discussions of child grooming and predatory behaviour, mentions & discussions of uncertain futures, skz 00line are mentioned and make maybe like 2 appearances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:01:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26030815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5ataen/pseuds/5ataen
Summary: Chan's plan going into university was simple; make friends, do his best in everything he did, and always make sure he gave enough of his attention to Felix to make sure his boyfriend didn't feel like he was being left behind. It was a simple plan and things were actually going pretty well for a couple of months.He made plenty of friends, gave his utmost for everything, and he never hesitated to be there for Felix when he needed himWhat he didn't factor in, though, was that his boyfriend was very cheeky, and that the rest of the student body were painfully oblivious and in denial.or, how chan, minho, and changbin met each other, how minho and changbin met felix, and a lil bit in between and after.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Lee Felix
Series: a little secrecy never hurt anyone [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1841809
Comments: 17
Kudos: 185





	cat's out of the bag

**Author's Note:**

> see series notes for notes on where this universe is set.
> 
> okay so welcome to yet another monster of a piece. this one's mostly light and fluffy, too, but it does have its serious moments.
> 
> as mentioned in the tags, child grooming and predatory behaviour are briefly discussed but not described graphically, it's only brought up to show that chanlix are in a healthy relationship and that chan and minho would straight up deck pedos, as everyone should.
> 
> it comes up pretty early on in the story, starts at the line  
>  **“That’s young.” Minho commented. “You didn’t… manipulate him or anything, did you?”**  
>  and ends at  
>  **“I would happily let you.” Chan replied, equally serious. The air in the room felt grim and thick with tension.**  
>  please skip if that topic makes you uncomfortable.
> 
> otherwise, this story is still mostly on the fluffy side and chanlix are still disgustingly in love
> 
> finally, i hope you enjoy this piece and i hope you finish this story with a light heart :)

When Chan met Felix, he was small, smaller than he already was currently. He knew that there was going to be a new family that was going to be moving into the unit next to theirs, his parents had mentioned it in passing during dinner once. Coincidentally, the new family had arrived on a weekend, and Chan’s parents saw it fit to help the new neighbours move in. Chan was easily roped into helping, not that he really minded. He first saw Felix, _tiny and adorable_ _Felix_ , struggling with his numerous plushies that he still had to this day. The second Chan saw him, he knew that he wanted to protect the boy at all costs. Felix reminded him a little of his little brother Lucas, except Chan felt exponentially more protective of the boy in front of him for some reason.

And then, when he heard Felix utter a hasty “I can't speak Korean” in oddly _perfect_ Korean, Chan decided that yeah, he _had_ to protect this boy at all costs. After some thinking, he found out why he weirdly felt more protective over Felix. It was because the boy was in the same situation Chan was in when his family had first moved to Korea; just starting off being a teen and yet having to leave all the life he had known thus far and having to start anew. It was pretty rough for Chan to adapt, because he had no one to help him. So the second Chan heard the familiar Aussie accent coming from the boy, he promised himself. He promised that he wouldn’t allow this boy to go through the rough time that he did, that he would do all he could to prevent the boy from suffering, from being hurt.

But, inadvertently, Chan was to become his biggest source of hurt. Chan dated other people when he already had an inkling that Felix liked him back, he did his best to drive Felix away because Chan was scared of their age gap, he was scared that he had accidentally built this figure of himself in Felix’s mind as the perfect older man, scared that he had accidentally preyed on an impressionable teenager. To Chan’s muddled brain back then, it was easy to think that. Felix was _young_ , and Chan was three _years_ older. That was really all it took for Chan to spiral.

Chan didn’t mean or want to hurt Felix, he just wanted to stop him from getting exponentially hurt in the future. But Felix, Felix came to be his home. Felix broke down all the walls of strength Chan had put up because he didn’t want to disappoint Felix in any way. Felix forced Chan to think and give him answers. Felix was wholly the reason why they got together, and for that Chan was always thankful. For because of that, Chan was graciously gifted the sunshine that was Felix as his boyfriend.

The hurting he had given Felix was always fresh in his mind, even now months later. And he knew it affected Felix, too. The day he graduated high school, a month ago, Felix had spent the night at his place. And in the darkness of the night, Felix had shared his insecurities about their future as a couple with him. Chan had quickly reassured him that they will last, that they will be strong. They had gone to sleep wrapped tightly around each other that night, and while the action was already commonplace before they were even together, that night felt different. Because right before they fell asleep, they had promised each other to be strong.

And you bet Chan was going to upkeep and hold that promise with an iron grip.

The past few days were hectic, what with move-in day and orientation happening successively. His new roommate, Minho, seemed pleasant enough. They had bonded a little during move-in day itself, telling each other basic information about themselves such as their interests and hobbies.

Today was the first day of university. Chan was still adapting, and it was tiring. He hadn’t even had the time to call Felix or even receive a call from Felix, their interactions the past few days limited to only text messages. Felix also hadn’t called him much, he figured it was because the high school semester just started, too, and Felix had to adjust to being back in school after the break.

It was night time now, Chan’s classes for the day having just finished. Chan had just left his dorm room to go take a shower, leaving his phone on his desk.

A few minutes later, Chan’s phone lit up, the screen showing that he was receiving a video call from someone whose contact name was ‘pixie 🧚🏼💛’.

Minho hadn’t meant to look, he liked having his privacy (as much as he could get in a university dorm, anyway) respected and so he did so to everyone else. It justified being rude to anyone who tried to disrespect him. But, Chan’s phone was lying face-up on his desk and Minho just happened to pass by at that very moment, his attention being caught by the screen that suddenly lit up as a ringtone rang clear in the air.

Minho, of course, just ignored it and just went to lay down on his bed, making a mental note to tell his roommate that he had missed a call when he was in the shower.

Chan returned 5 minutes later, fully clothed and towel over his damp hair.

“Chan hyung, someone called you while you were in the shower.” Minho informed, looking up from his phone out of common courtesy.

“Oh, yeah?” Chan asked, picking up his phone. A wide smile stretched across his face. “Thanks for telling me, Minho.” Chan thanked, and Minho hummed as he turned his attention back to his phone. “Do you mind if I make this call here?” Chan asked as he sat at the foot of his bed.

“Oh, no, not at all. Go ahead.” Minho ushered, looking up again. “Do you want me to leave the room?” Minho asked. Based off of the contact name, ‘pixie 🧚🏼💛’ was probably a girlfriend. Making the call outside would probably attract too many nosy people, so Minho didn’t mind stepping outside himself if Chan needed the privacy.

“Oh, there’s no need. Thank you, though.” Chan replied, smiling thankfully. “I’m making the call now.” Chan said, just for a head’s up, and Minho hummed.

The dial tone rang twice before the person on the other side picked up. Chan immediately switched over to English, but Minho could tell it was a greeting from the ‘hello’ and ‘how are you’ that he understood. But, English, though? Chan had a foreign girlfriend?

“Chris!”

Minho didn’t know what he was expecting, but hearing such a deep voice was definitely not it. He was so shell-shocked, he blocked almost everything out as confusion swirled in his head. Not that he could understand much, anyway. They had continued to converse in a mixture of mostly English and a bit of Korean. He did, however, manage to catch the English words ‘roommate’ and ‘here’ from Chan, and they continued their conversation in a more hushed tone. Minho guessed Chan had told whoever it was on the other side that Minho was present in the room.

Was ‘pixie’ Chan’s older brother, or something? But ‘pixie’ wasn’t exactly something you would call your older brother. But then he caught an utterance of ‘hyung’ from the low-volume conversation.

_Younger brother, then? Did Chan’s younger brother steal all of the deep voice genes?_

The call ended relatively quickly, though. Minho managed to catch ‘pixie’ say something about having to do homework in Korean. He managed to catch both of them say ‘I love you’ to each other before the call got cut. Chan was all smiles.

“Who was that? Younger brother?” Minho asked, looking at Chan, curiosity getting the better of him.

“No, my boyfriend.” Chan replied, before his smile dropped quickly. “That’s not gonna be a problem, is it?” Chan asked.

“What, no, no, I’m bisexual there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.” Minho replied hurriedly. “And who would be homophobic nowadays? In this economy?” Minho joked, Chan laughing in reply, getting rid of all and any of the tension in the room.

“Good, I thought I was about to catch a problem on the first day of uni.” Chan laughed, Minho chuckling.

“Care to introduce us?” Minho asked, and Chan nodded as he stood up from his bed to make his way over to Minho, who sat up.

“His name is Felix.” Chan said as he showed Minho his phone screen, showing him his lock screen of a freckled boy smiling widely, huge pink fuzzy turtleneck making him look absolutely tiny.

“He looks absolutely adorable.” Minho couldn’t help but compliment, and Chan smiled proudly, as if he was gloating. He probably was.

“He is, isn’t he?” Chan smiled as he retracted his arm, sounding absolutely smitten.

“But, please, don’t take this as an offense,” Minho said and Chan looked at him, eyebrow quirked. “But that voice came from him?” Minho asked, and Chan couldn’t stop the laughs from escaping his lips.

“Yeah, it came from him. He gets asked that a lot.” Chan chuckled. “He’s still adorable, though, and his voice has insane range.” Chan said as he looked through his phone, searching for something. He let out an “ah!” once he found it, and turned his phone screen towards Minho again, and a video was playing. It was of the boy, Felix, and he was talking. He looked almost exactly the same, but now he was speaking with a high-pitched voice. Minho almost couldn’t believe his eyes and ears.

“He has the voice of a 40-year-old grown man and a literal child in him?” Minho asked incredulously once the short video finished, and Chan laughed as he nodded.

“It’s one of the things I love about him.” Chan smiled, sitting on his bed again.

“He looks young, though, how old is he?” Minho asked cautiously.

“He’s 17 this year, we started dating back in July last year.” Chan replied. Minho couldn’t stop the sharp intake of breath.

“That’s _young_.” Minho commented. “You didn’t… manipulate him or anything, did you?”

And just like that, all of Chan’s insecurities came back to him. But he shook out of it immediately. He had to. Felix didn’t cry all those tears just for Chan to question their relationship the second Felix wasn’t physically near him anymore.

“No, would never even dream of it.” Chan shook his head. “I’ve known him since I was 16 and saw him as nothing more than a younger brother at first, until I realised that I’ve actually fallen for him a little over a year later. Still treated him like a younger brother, though. I didn’t force anything onto him, and I never treated him with any intentions of exploiting him in any way.” Chan paused for a while, allowing Minho to take it all in. “He was the one to confess, but I rejected him at first. I only did something after I was sure that his feelings were genuine and not something that I inadvertently coerced him into having.” Chan explained.

“That’s... good.” Minho said slowly, before he nodded. “Yeah, it’s good. Rather reassuring, actually.”

“I would have never agreed if I even felt like he wasn’t thinking right. But Felix proved to me that he was making a conscious and well-thought out decision.” Chan added.

“That’s great, I would beat your ass with no remorse if you were a predator.” Minho informed, very seriously. Chan nodded.

“I would happily let you.” Chan replied, equally serious. The air in the room felt grim and thick with tension.

“The mood’s turned rather serious, let’s go back to Felix as a person.” Minho said, trying to slowly steer away from the seriousness that settled in the room. “Tell me how you two started dating.” Minho smiled easily, and Chan rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

“It wasn’t easy,” Chan started, and Minho’s quirked an eyebrow. “Like I said, I rejected him at first. There were a lot of tears involved and I almost drove him away from me.” Chan said, and he continued to tell Minho all about his boyfriend.

Minho was glad. He managed to steer away from the unsettling seriousness in the room, and as Chan went on, he could tell that the love and affection Chan held for Felix was genuine, and from what Chan told him, he was sure Felix was genuine too.

“So, how’s uni been treating you so far?” Felix asked, practically on top of Chan.

Midterms had just ended, and Chan opted to return back home for one week out of the two that were midsemester break, needing a complete break from school. He would have to go back to campus the next week to work on his project, so he was sure he was going to savour his week home, having missed his family and Felix too much. Mostly Felix, though.

They were in Chan’s room, just relaxing. Felix was on his stomach, but his upper half was lying on Chan’s torso rather than the mattress. He had both his hands on Chan’s chest, his chin resting on the back of his hands as he looked up at Chan. Chan had his arms wrapped loosely around Felix, but the sight in front of him was too cute, he couldn’t help but tap Felix’s button nose. As Felix scrunched up his nose, Chan chuckled, adoration filling his chest.

“It’s been okay, a little tiring.” Chan replied. “Midterms were hell, though.” Chan complained, and Felix laughed.

“Stop whining, Mr University Student,” Felix teased, bringing himself up. Chan couldn’t help but heave at the sudden pressure to his chest, but he soon smiled when Felix moved up and placed a kiss on his lips. “Were they difficult?” Felix asked, keeping himself propped up on his elbow, looking down at Chan with soft eyes.

Chan appreciated the view atop him first, before he put a hand behind Felix’s head and gently guided him down, giving him a kiss of his own. He then rested their foreheads together. “Not difficult, per se, but very different from high school. I had to submit one song for grading, and I had a music theory paper that was honestly one of the hardest papers I have ever sat. But I think I’d call all the other papers more _tiring_ than difficult.”

Felix chuckled, and then gave Chan another kiss before he laid down beside Chan this time, using one of Chan’s arms as his pillow. “Well, you’re not classically trained, I can see why you found it difficult.”

Chan hummed in answer. “How about you? How’s second year for you?” Chan asked, and Felix groaned. Chan chuckled. “Who’s whining now, huh?”

“Shut up, I have rights, I have national exams coming up next year.” Felix complained, burying his face into Chan’s side. “Everything’s honestly the same, just much more intense.” Felix said, a little muffled. “Jaemin and Donghyuck’s been keeping me sane, mostly.”

Chan hummed, turning to lie on his side and instead taking Felix into his arms again and tucking him into his chest, rubbing his back gently. “That’s good. Great that you have friends to lose your sanity with together.”

“You make it sound like you have no friends,” Felix scoffed as he rubbed his head against the soft material of Chan’s hoodie. “Do you not have anyone keeping you sane at university?” Felix asked, peeking at Chan’s face. Chan placed a kiss on Felix’s forehead instead of answering immediately.

“You.” Chan smiled giddily, eyes full of love as he looked at Felix. Felix, however, blanched and knocked his head against Chan’s chest.

“Ew, cheesy.” Felix grimaced, but allowing a smile to blossom on his face as he kept it against Chan’s chest.

“Hush, you love it.” Chan laughed, squeezing Felix lightly. “But honestly, yeah, _you_ have been keeping me a little sane, my own little piece of home in the form of weekly video calls.” Chan laughed. “But I do have friends, don’t worry. Minho’s a good friend, I also made a few friends in my course and some of the other arts students. A few upperclassmen too. Minho’s the closest to me, though.”

“Wow, I see Mr Popular is back in full force right off the bat, again.” Felix teased. Chan pinched Felix’s side, making him jolt. “Chris!” Felix whined, lightly slapping Chan’s chest.

“Never call me that again.” Chan replied, no actual heat in his voice, tapping Felix’s nose again. A comfortable silence settled between the two lovers for a few minutes, the two just savouring being around each other again, before Felix broke the silence.

“What’s Minho hyung like?” Felix asked, looking up at Chan again. Chan hummed first, thinking.

“He’s pretty cool, pretty mischievous. He’s got a soft heart, though.” Chan replied, and then a silence settled for a while again. “Would you like to meet him?”

“Meet him? I’ve already met him.” Felix replied, referring to that one time Chan had introduced them via one of their video calls.

“That’s barely meeting, pixie,” Chan rolled his eyes, “I meant, physically. Face to face.”

“Oh, uhm, I’m not against it, but why?” Felix asked.

Chan shrugged. “I just want to introduce the most important person in my life to the person practically almost always with me in university.” At that, Felix blushed, hiding his face in Chan’s chest yet again.

“Stop being so cheesy,” Felix whined, “What is in the air over there? Why did you become so much cheesier?” Felix asked, knocking his head against Chan’s chest. Chan laughed, chest reverberating.

“University kids have wilder pickup lines than you’d think, you wouldn’t believe the stuff I’ve heard in the couple of months I’ve been there.” Chan laughed. “And I’m forced to keep away from you, I have too much pent-up love and affection now.” Chan said, pulling himself away a little to reveal Felix’s beet red face. Chan smiled down at him, cupping his face gently before he leaned down and kissed Felix slowly. Felix melted into the kiss, only now realising exactly how much he missed Chan’s touch.

They only separated a minute or two later, when they felt their lungs constricting due to the lack of air.

“I missed you too, Channie.” Felix said as an afterthought. Chan rubbed their noses together as a reply, Felix smiling at the soft action. “And I’d love to meet Minho hyung, I’m curious enough to bite.”

“Great, I’ll let him know.” Chan said. “But I’ll ask him next week,” Chan rolled onto his back, taking Felix along with him with his arm hooked around his waist, hauling Felix on top of him again, “For now, I’m claiming all your time. I’ve missed you like _crazy_.” Chan rubbed their noses again. Felix laughed, before gently cupping Chan’s face and gently kissing Chan again.

“I think we can arrange for that.”

“Hey, Minho, do you have any plans for dinner?” Chan asked the second Minho walked in through their room door.

It was now the second week of the midsemester break, Chan having come back to campus earlier in the week.

“Do you wanna have dinner with me? It’s my treat. I know a really good barbeque place, but it’s around 30 minutes by car.” Chan invited. “I also want you to meet someone.”

“Is that someone perhaps Felix?” Minho asked as he put his bag down. Chan nodded and replied with a bashful ‘yeah’.

“Oh my God, really? After all this time? I’m finally meeting ‘pixie’ face to face?” Minho teased, and Chan just blushed at the teasing before he told Minho to hurry up and get freshened up because they were going to leave in 15 minutes, telling him that he wanted Minho to be presentable for his first formal meeting with Felix.

“I don’t want him to think I’m living with a vagrant.” Chan told him, and Minho only spluttered at that because one, how _dare_ he, and two, who even uses the word ‘vagrant’ these days? Nevertheless, Minho did get freshened up. He had just come back from working on his own joint project with his team, and was sweating as if he just ran a marathon, and he _felt_ like he just ran a marathon, so a shower was already in his plans anyway.

In the shower, Minho did get a few small worries. What if he couldn’t really get along with Felix? Chan had introduced them once through their almost weekly video calls around a month ago. They had only exchanged greetings before Minho went back to what he was doing. Felix seemed rather awkward and shy, and Minho didn’t want to unsettle the boy. Chan had told him after the call not to mind Felix’s shyness, though. Felix was just simply still a little conscious over his spoken Korean, and although both Chan and Minho agreed that the boy was more than fine, Minho was understanding.

Although, they did exchange a few pleasantries a few phone calls after, so Minho’s worries managed to wash off of him a little. Soon enough, Minho and Chan were in Chan’s car and heading to wherever this restaurant was. When they arrived and entered the place, Minho found himself immediately scanning the restaurant, looking for anyone that seems familiar enough to be Felix.

“He’s not here yet, if that’s what you’re looking for.” Chan said from beside him before he turned to the server at the counter, requesting a table for three. The two were then immediately led to a table. Minho took the seat across from Chan, thinking the couple would probably want to sit beside each other on the bench. Minho immediately looked at the menu while Chan put his attention to his phone first before he gently set it down on the table.

“Felix said he’ll be here in a few minutes, and that we can order ahead.” Chan informed as he picked up the menu. Minho just hummed, and after about a minute of looking through the menu the two boys ordered a generous amount of meat.

Chan and Minho spoke about their day and how it went as they waited, but a few minutes later Minho saw Chan visibly brighten up as he evidently saw someone come in through the entrance. Minho turned in his seat, and saw a freckled boy wearing a simple white sweatshirt, sleeves long enough to cover half his palm, with black jeans. _Felix_.

Felix looked around for a second before he spotted Chan and Minho, features instantly being overtaken by a bright smile as he waved at them and made a beeline towards the table. Minho turned back around and saw Chan with an absolutely lovesick expression on his face as he watched his boyfriend come to the table.

“Channie,” Felix all but breathed out Chan’s name as he slid into the seat beside him, wrapping his arms around Chan’s shoulders as Chan wrapped an arm around Felix’s waist. Once they separated from each other, Felix cupped Chan’s jaw and pressed a kiss on his cheek. “Missed ya.” Felix smiled, and Chan’s lips stretched into a giddy smile.

“I missed you too, pixie.” Chan smiled as he, too, placed a kiss on Felix’s freckled cheek. Minho wondered how they could miss each other too much when Chan had spent the whole week last week back at home. Minho just attributed it to being in a somewhat long-distance relationship. “This is Minho, by the way.” Chan introduced, gesturing over to Minho. Felix turned his attention to Minho, a small smile on his face.

“It’s nice to finally meet you.” Minho returned the smile, bringing his hand up for a handshake.

“It’s nice to finally meet you too, Minho hyung.” Felix said as he took up the handshake. Once Felix’s hand was in Minho’s grasp, Minho couldn’t help but notice how soft and small his hand was. And upon a closer look, Chan wasn’t lying; the boy was absolutely adorable from head to toe. Felix’ soon retracted his hand and placed it on Chan’s thigh, and Minho could see his roommate’s hand move to take his boyfriend’s hand in his.

All three of them quickly made conversation as they waited for the meat to arrive, continuing their conversation even when the food had already arrived. If there was only one word Minho had to use to describe Felix, it would be pleasant. The boy, though a little awkward and shy at first (Minho thought back to Chan telling him that Felix was still conscious of his Korean), quickly had his bubbly personality shine through as the dinner progressed. He was cute, but not childishly so. Minho was honestly growing quite fond of him already.

Once they were all done eating and Chan paid, they made their way back to Chan's car.

“Do you mind if I drive Felix back home?” Chan asked Minho as they made their way. “Our house is pretty far by public transport, and I don't want him to get home too late.”

Minho nodded. “Yeah, it's fine. It's still a free ride, anyway.”

“Alright, awesome.” Chan said, opening the passenger seat's door open for Felix, who thanked him as he climbed in.

“Sorry if me being sent home is bothering you, Minho hyung.” Felix turned around from his seat to look apologetically at Minho in the backseat. Minho only shook his head.

“No, really, it's fine,” Minho reassured, “I wouldn't want you to be out too late, either, you're still pretty young. I’ll probably just review some lessons later before just milling around on my phone until I fall asleep or something."

Felix thanked Minho once again before he turned back around. Minho took out his phone to occupy himself with for the ride, but not before he saw Chan taking Felix's hand in his, holding both the gear and his boyfriend's hand in one hand. His roommate really was in love.

It took around 20 minutes for the car to stop in front of an apartment building.

“I’ll just send Felix to the entrance.” Chan informed as he unbuckled his seatbelt, and Minho just hummed.

“Do you want to come up,” Minho almost damn near passed out when he heard Felix say that as he was making his way out the car, “To say ‘hi’ to your family for a bit?” Felix completed his sentence and Minho internally let out a sigh of relief. He thought he had to find his own way back to the dorms that night.

Minho hadn’t heard Chan’s reply, and he hadn’t meant to watch the two, but as Minho exited the car and changed to the passenger seat, he saw Chan smiling gently at Felix. They talked for a while, before Chan leaned in and gave Felix a quick peck on the lips. Felix smiled in reply, moving in to give Chan a peck of his own, and the couple hugged each other tightly before they separated a few seconds later. Felix waved at Chan as he retreated back into the building, Chan waving back and waiting until Felix was in the elevator before he turned around and went back to the car. Minho quickly turned his attention to his phone, fumbling slightly, embarrassed at having ended up watching the whole intimate exchange.

“So, how was finally meeting Felix?” Chan asked once they were on the road again.

“It was great,” Minho replied. “He’s adorable.” Minho watched as Chan’s features were engulfed in a big, fond smile.

“He really is.” Chan practically breathed out. Minho smiled at the reaction.

“You really are in love.”

“Never said I wasn’t.” Minho had to pause after hearing that, taking in the fact that his roommate really was _hopelessly_ in love.

“I can understand you, though.” Minho said after a few beats of silence. “He’s very lovable. You didn’t hear it from me, but maybe, perhaps, I already have a soft spot for him. I’ll kill you if you hurt him.”

Chan simply laughed at that. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on ever hurting him again.”

And just like that, a light and comfortable atmosphere settled in the car as music from the radio played softly, the two roommates opting to just bask in the calmness of the night as they drove back to the dorms.

“I was asked out today.” Chan mentioned, and he saw Felix freeze as he was sitting down, butt just short from the seat.

Chan had made the drive back to his hometown, he and Felix deciding to go out on a date that night. They had just finished dinner and were now in an ice-cream parlour for dessert.

Earlier that evening, on the way back to the dorms, Chan was stopped by a girl that looked vaguely familiar. She introduced herself as a fine arts freshman in his comms class. It was a general class, and the class was huge and a mishmash of freshmen from different majors, so Chan couldn’t remember her name for the life of him. He didn’t have time to dwell on it, though, because she had hastily confessed to him and asked him out.

If this was one of their calls, Chan would’ve thought the call was lagging, with how long Felix stayed paused, but then he spoke again.

“Oh?” Was all Felix said, putting his butt down on the chair.

“Yeah.” Chan replied. “I just thought I would tell you. I didn’t want to keep any secrets between us.”

“Oh,” Felix said again, “Thank you for that.” He said bashfully, but grateful. “What did you say to them?”

“I rejected her, of course.” Chan replied immediately. “I told her I had a boyfriend. She said she didn’t believe me, so I showed her a picture of you. Was that okay?”

Felix laughed first before he answered. “She _didn’t_ _believe_ you? What does that even mean?” Felix asked, chuckling. Chan smiled, glad that his boyfriend didn’t seem too affected.

“I didn’t know what she meant either, she really just went ‘I don’t believe you!’ right after I told her I had a boyfriend, so I just showed her my lock screen, which is of course still you, by the way.” Chan shrugged his shoulders. “Again, was that okay?”

“Of course it’s okay.” Felix smiled. “What did she say after you showed her my picture?”

“Oh, that’s the weird part. She said that showing her a picture of my ‘little brother’ wasn’t going to work.” At that Felix couldn’t help but laugh out loud, trying his best to mute his laughter so as to not cause a ruckus in the store. “Baby, calm down, I still haven’t finished my story.” Chan tried to calm him, but he himself was laughing, too. The interaction truly was weird, Chan was almost convinced it was all just a fever dream.

“There’s MORE?” Felix exclaimed, eyes wide.

“Yeah, there’s more.” Chan nodded. “So, after she called you my little brother, it kinda brought back nightmare flashbacks of me trying to convince myself that you were just a little brother to me before we started dating-”

“You _deserved_ those nightmare flashbacks, that time was an _absolute_ _nightmare_ for me.”

“Hush, baby, you know I don’t think of you as just my little brother,” Chan retorted, “Anyway, so yeah I got nightmare flashbacks, and so I just told her that no, you were, in fact, not my little brother, but my boyfriend that I love very much, so I showed her my background, which is still us at my graduation.”

“That one where you’re kissing my temple?” Felix asked, and Chan nodded with a small ‘yeah’. “What did she do then?”

“Well, she stormed off, face red, and grumbling something I couldn’t hear. I wasn’t sure if it was out of anger or embarrassment, though. I didn’t spare her another thought afterwards. She called you my _little brother_.” Chan grimaced.

“Hey, you called me your little bro all up until I confessed to you, and _then_ rejected me while saying I was just a little brother to you.” Felix teased. That fact honestly still hurt him a little, that he was rejected at first, but now it was mostly just a way for him to tease Chan. And tease Chan it did because Felix actually saw him physically cringe.

“Please, no more, don’t bring up those cursed times anymore.” Chan pleaded, and Felix laughed.

“She’s crazy!” Felix hollered, lithe frame quaking from laughter. “You really dodged a bullet out there, Channie hyung.” Felix ran a hand down his face as he continued laughing. “You’re gonna have to show me her pics if she continues to bother you, though. I’ll fight her myself.” Felix said after he finally settled down. Chan scoffed.

“Please, baby, you’re tiny, there’s no fight in it for you.”

“Hey! I’m a black belt!” Felix fought back, and Chan could only chuckle at his boyfriend’s ridiculousness.

“So, I heard that you’ve turned into a heartbreaker.” Younghyun commented as the group worked on finetuning their performance for the showcase.

The semester had ended two weeks ago, and Chan was just notified a few days ago that his team was going to be performing for the showcase. Chan was conflicted when he first heard the news. On one hand, he was ecstatic that their hard work was going to be recognised. On the other, he was planning on spending the whole summer break back home, and his and Felix’s family had even planned on flying back to Australia as usual, so he was a little sad. He still managed to secure two weeks, next week and the week after, for his holiday, though, and the plan was still to go to Australia. He would be missing the first two weeks of rehearsals, but Younghyun and Jaebum were fine with it and it was honestly pretty common for some performers to miss some of the earlier rehearsals.

“W-what?” Chan spluttered, turning his chair to look at Younghyun.

“Heard you’ve rejected like, six girls so far, and you’ve only been through one semester in university.” Younghyun repeated, teasing smile on his lips

“Six? I thought it was more like ten.” Jaebum joined in on the teasing. Chan flushed bright red.

“It’s not that many!” Chan denied. “It was only four…”

“ONLY four? Damn Channie, you showing off now?” Younghyun teased again.

“Well, what do you expect from the new _campus heartthrob_?” Jaebum added, and Chan only burnt impossibly redder.

“Please, don’t call me that.” Chan pleaded.

He knew of the rumours, and he knew what people had started calling him. It was honestly confusing how he got to the position that he was in now, but here he was. He had already endured enough teasing from _both_ Minho and Felix, the latter having yowled in laughter when Chan had told him about his new ‘status’ and predicament.

“Well, out with it then, why reject all those girls?” Jaebum asked.

“ _I have a_ _boyfriend_ , you two know that.” Chan replied, slightly exasperated. The two upperclassmen had bugged him about his lock screen the second they saw it, and Chan never was good at keeping his mouth shut when asked about his boyfriend.

“Then why not just make an ‘announcement’ on your Instagram or something? Something that yells ‘hey, I’m taken and this is my boyfriend so back off’?” Younghyun asked.

“I’ve asked Felix if I should do that, but he only laughed at me and said ‘no’, because it was ‘ _too_ _funny’_.” Chan explained, definitely exasperated. He definitely wanted to do it. To get rid of the rumours that he had only made up a fake boyfriend to get girls off of his back. He would never do such a thing.

“ _too funny’_? Chan, you _have_ to introduce me to this kid, he sounds fun.” Younghyun laughed. Jaebum agreed, laughing along.

“Oh, you’ll probably meet him soon. I invited him to the showcase.” Chan informed.

“Only him? Man, you really _are_ whipped, Channie.” Jaebum teased.

“Hyung, it’s not like that!” Chan flushed. “I invited my family too, of course.”

“Oooh, family _and_ spouse?” Younghyun continued to tease.

“Can we please stop teasing me about my boyfriend and just go back to working on the project, please.” Chan pleaded, so red he probably looked like a tomato. And it worked, Younghyun and Jaebum probably taking pity on him and turning back to their work. But apparently, not enough pity.

“Of course, wouldn’t want to stress you too much on your _honeymoon_ next week.” Younghyun had to add in.

Chan could only groan, pulling his beanie down to hide his face.

The midsemester break of the second semester had officially just started and Chan, as predicted, went back home to be with his family. And Felix. _Always Felix_.

Chan spent the afternoon packing before he made the drive over and had spent most of the evening with his family before he made his way over to the next apartment over to spend the night with Felix. It was usually the other way around, but when Chan had first arrived earlier in the evening, Felix had only greeted him shortly and told him that he had some schoolwork to do first so he couldn’t be over for dinner, and that Chan should spend some time with his family first. The boy looked a little troubled, and Chan really badly wanted to ask, but with a quick kiss, Felix had already retreated back into their house. Chan figured he would just let Felix be until later, maybe the boy really was just busy with some schoolwork.

They were now in Felix’s room, cuddled up in the younger boy’s bed. They weren’t doing anything, really, just basking in each other’s presence. The room was dark, the only light source was the dim lamp on Felix’s bedside table. It cast shadows on Felix’s face, making him look more troubled than he already did. When Chan had first entered the boy’s room, Felix was already in bed, seemingly deep in thought. Upon seeing Chan, though, he made an effort to flash him a small smile and shifted to be right up against the wall beside his bed, patting the small space remaining on his twin bed, beckoning Chan over. Chan had easily slipped in with him, wrapping his arms around Felix as his boyfriend placed his head on Chan’s shoulder and draped an arm across Chan’s middle. Chan really, really badly wanted to ask what was bothering him, but he decided to give Felix some quiet first, to allow him to sort out his thoughts and bring it up himself if he could.

“Baby? What's wrong?” Chan finally broke the silence that wrapped around the room for the past few minutes. Felix, who was mindlessly drawing patterns on Chan’s chest up till then, stopped. He sighed before he snuggled further into Chan, choosing to keep silent for a while longer. Chan tightened his hold on him.

“Nothing.” Was the only answer Felix gave.

“Are you sure? You seemed pretty down.” Chan prodded gently. Felix only hummed and huddled closer, seemingly trying to bury his face further into Chan’s neck. “Well, alright. If you say it’s nothing, then it’s nothing. But know that I’ll always be here to listen to your problems.” Chan said, nuzzling his head against Felix’s. There was something very obviously bothering Felix, but he didn’t seem ready to talk about it. Chan decided to just give him more time.

The two stayed silent after that, and Chan had even thought Felix had drifted off to sleep. He was just about to check if the boy was asleep when he spoke again.

“I got confessed to a few days ago.”

“Oh?” Was all Chan could ask. Felix nodded against his neck. “Then why do you seem to be in such a sour mood?”

“She was mean.” Felix revealed.

“Mean?” Chan asked, confused as to how a confession could be mean. Felix nodded again.

“When she confessed, I of course rejected her, told her that I was dating you.” Felix started, tightening his hold on Chan. “She said she knew, but that she thought we had already broken up.”

“Why did she think so? Are rumours being spread about you in school?” Chan asked, feeling his protectiveness bristle.

“No, at least not that I know of.” Felix replied. “She said she thought so because relationships between couples where one graduates first never last. She said that you were bound to find _someone_ or _something_ that would catch your attention more in university and you would tire of me eventually, and that she thought it had already happened.” Felix revealed, and Chan could feel tears prickle his neck. “Chris, tell me, am I holding you back?”

This time, Chan could feel his anger bristle. _How dare she._ But right now, his anger could wait, because Felix was crying against him.

“What? No, baby,” Chan reassured, moving to wipe away the tears that had fallen. “No one could ever compare to you, my love.”

“But there are so many more mature people at university. People who could probably understand you better. And me? I’m just a high school _kid_.” Felix cried softly. “When you tell me your difficulties and how tired you are sometimes, I like to think that I understand, that I’m enough to make you feel better because you tell me so. But the fact is, I can’t possibly imagine what you’re going through because I’m not there. I’m not even _physically there_ to comfort you. All I can offer you are my words.”

Chan felt his heart break. He knew that Felix’s concerns stemmed from a little bit of left over trauma from when they had first gotten together. From when Chan had initially rejected him because of his age. They’ve talked about it many times by now, but they were still a relatively young couple and this was one of their biggest insecurities. It wasn’t often that it presented itself at the forefront of their thoughts now, having gotten better with time, but these types of things cling onto you and rear its ugly head when aggravated. He had to fix this _now_.

“Oh baby,” Chan whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to Felix’s forehead. “No one has ever even come close to you in my heart.” He reiterated. “You understand me better than anyone, you comfort me better than anyone. While yes, your touch is something that I can never get tired of and almost always crave, your words carry such a weight that always touches my mind and soul. I’m not lying when I say you always make me feel better.” Chan said, this time kissing Felix’s nose bridge. “And so what if you’re a high school kid? I’m just a university kid.” This time, the tip of Felix’s nose. “We’re not too different,” Felix’s left cheek, “At the end of the day, the both of us are still young and have many things to learn about love and life. I just know a little bit more than you do, just a little bit.” And finally, Felix’s right cheek, before he moved back to look at Felix, trying to convey all of his love and affection. More tears were threatening to spill from his eyes, his face red. Chan wasn’t sure if it was from crying or from being bashful. Chan hoped it was the latter.

“Remember what I said the night of my graduation?” Chan asked, caressing Felix’s cheek. Felix nodded weakly.

“ _‘I can’t promise you that every day will be smooth sailing, there will be particularly hard days, but I know we will fight for us, fight for our love. I trust us, I trust you, and I trust myself’_.” Felix quoted shakily.

“Exactly that, my love. Today is just one of the harder days.” Chan comforted, kissing Felix’s forehead gently again. “You’re no less than any of the other people in university. Never think of yourself as any less than perfect for me.”

By now, Felix had a steady stream of tears going down his cheeks.

“I love you, bubby,” Felix said shakily, bringing up shaky hands to cup Chan’s face. “I love you so much.” Felix breathed before he kissed Chan. It started off unsure, but then grew almost desperate, as if Felix was trying his hardest to remind himself that _Chan was his_ , and _he was Chan’s_.

Chan kissed back with as much feeling, stamping the fact that they were _each other’s_ into Felix’s mouth with his tongue. He would go through hell and back before he would even allow anyone to drive a wedge between them.

They only separated when they felt their lungs burn, breathing heavily with flushed faces.

“I love you too, Felix, so much,” Chan reminded, rubbing their noses together, “Never let anyone try and refute that.”

“I won’t.” Felix replied, closing his eyes, finally relaxing.

“You must be tired,” Chan said, turning around and turning off the lamp on the nightstand and then turning back, wrapping his arms around Felix tightly, as if grounding him. He felt Felix snake an arm to hook around his back, burying his face into Chan’s chest. “Go to sleep. Better days wait for us.”

It was Christmas break, the day itself only 3 days away, and Chan had, of course, made the drive back home. He couldn’t miss celebrating the joyous holiday with his and Felix's families. It had become a tradition for the two families to celebrate the occasion together ever since the Lees had moved in next to them.

This year, they decided to celebrate it at a ski resort. They had arrived earlier in the day, and had spent the whole morning settling down and unpacking their belongings for their stay, and then went out to ski for the entirety of the afternoon. It was now night time, and though it was still pretty early, only a nice 11pm, everyone had decided to return to their assigned rooms and probably sleep. Only Chan and Felix decided to remain in the living room of the lodge.

Their siblings had bothered the both of them the whole day, the kids obviously having missed Chan. Felix had mostly let them be, letting them, especially Lucas and Hannah, play with Chan as much as they wanted. But it was only a matter of time before the kids had dragged Felix in, too. The afternoon was mostly filled with joyous laughter as Chan and Felix tried keeping up with their energetic siblings.

That, combined with the fact that they had spent basically the whole day travelling and skiing, made sure that the couple didn’t really have much quality time together. The silence that the night offered, only being disturbed by the soft crackling of the firewood, provided them the intimacy that they missed throughout the day, appreciating the quiet stillness of the night and the cosy fireplace as they snuggled up to each other on the loveseat. Felix had his legs thrown over Chan’s as he wrapped his arms around Chan’s middle, his head snuggled against Chan’s neck and Chan had his arms wrapped around Felix, thumb absentmindedly rubbing circles on the arm strapped across his abdomen as they both just watched the fire.

“I was thinking of applying to major in dance for university.” Felix revealed, breaking the quietness in the room. Chan froze. Felix felt him freeze, so the younger boy snuggled further into Chan, trying to elicit a reply or at least a reaction from Chan. It worked, though, and after a few seconds of stillness Chan snuggled back, rubbing their heads together and tightening his hold on Felix before he dropped a kiss on the top of Felix’s head.

“Are you sure about this?” Chan asked. Felix nodded.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while, ever since you got accepted into university, actually, and I’ve been talking to mom and dad about it. Even told Jaemin and Donghyuck.” Felix replied. “You’re the last one I have yet to tell, because I wanted to be sure before I told you anything.”

“Baby, I’m proud that you made the decision to study what you love and what you’re passionate about, but are you really sure you want to do this?” Chan asked. “I’m not going to sugar coat it; the future isn’t going to be easy and it isn’t going to be secure. And, actually _studying_ your hobby is way different from just partaking in it.”

Chan was all for supporting Felix’s dreams and all his decisions. But Felix was precious to him. And as much as he wanted to support his boyfriend and his dreams at all costs, he wanted to be sure Felix knew the reality of it all. The arts weren’t always something to awe at, it wasn’t always glitz and glamour. It was more pain and suffering, if anything. And he would rather die than see the ugly reality kill Felix’s dreams.

“I’ve done all the reading I could,” Felix started off, nuzzling his cheek against the soft material of Chan’s jumper. “And honestly? It sounds rough, but very rewarding.” Felix then lifted his head and looked at Chan, and Chan looked back in his eyes. “ _I want this,_ Chris _._ ”

There was so much finality, so much sureness in Felix voice and eyes. That’s when Chan knew, Felix wouldn’t back down so easily. He wouldn’t cave in so easily. He could trust Felix, trust that even if he does fall, he’ll get back up time and time again.

Chan leaned forward and placed a light kiss on Felix’s nose bridge, and then rubbed their noses together.

“Then, by all means, go for it. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

With the new academic year, a new friend was brought to Chan.

Chan had been involved with the student council ever since the start of his second semester of freshman year, so it wasn’t really a surprise when he was asked to be an orientation leader for the new freshmen. Chan had a hard time saying no to favours, but for this one he didn’t really mind. It honestly seemed a little fun, and he enjoyed his own orientation. He was still friends with his own orientation leaders, Jihyo and Jackson, to this day, and even met most of his friends during orientation.

In his group, was a boy named Changbin. He was intimidating at first glance, but he was surprisingly easy to talk to and Chan found that they clicked rather well. So, when Changbin asked him if Chan could team up with him for the joint project, he had easily said yes.

And Changbin, Changbin considered himself to be lucky. When his class was told about the joint project, he took the chance off the bat and asked Chan if he could team up with him. The sophomore had easily agreed, and even brought in one of his friends to complete the team; another sophomore named Hongjoong. The team was pretty much set to start working by the fourth week of the semester.

Changbin was honestly nervous about university at first, but he figured it wouldn’t be so difficult now.

On their first meeting as a team, they had easily decided on what genre to do. Their music preferences were both similar and complimentary, and their musical direction was as well. Chan was brought back to the previous year, to his own project with Younghyun and Jaebum, and how smooth everything surprisingly went despite their rather different music preferences. And then this year, things seemed to be going even smoother. Chan couldn’t help but count his blessings.

Right now, they were having their second meeting. After discussing what they wanted the general feel of their track to be, they decided to first create samples for the other two to listen to and from there build off of each other's ideas and hopefully create a draft based off of their ideas by the end of the day.

They were all still creating their samples when suddenly, Chan’s phone lit up. And with where Chan had chosen to set his phone down, behind his laptop and in Changbin’s clear line of sight, Changbin couldn’t help but look at the screen as a reflex. The sophomore had gotten a message from a contact named ‘pixie 🧚🏼‍♀‍💛’, but that wasn’t what caught his attention; it was the lock screen. It was of two boys hugging; a blonde guy, whose face wasn’t visible due to how the picture was taken; it was taken from behind and slightly to the left of blonde guy, and a freckled boy, chin resting on the blonde’s shoulder so his face was in full view as his hands were wrapped tightly around the blonde’s shoulders. The blonde guy was probably Chan because he still had the same hair. But who was the other?

“Chan hyung, I think Felix texted you.” It was Hongjoong who told Chan. Chan hummed as he reached for his phone, smiling as he saw the notification.

“Who’s Felix?” Changbin couldn’t help but ask.

“Chan hyung’s boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend?”

“Yes,” Chan removed his attention from his phone, “Is there a problem with that?”

“What? No!” Changbin was quick to rebut. “Love is love as long as the person feels right,” Changbin added, “It’s just, I didn’t expect you to not be straight, hyung, because no offence but you seemed pretty het to me.” Changbin explained, and both Chan and Hongjoong laughed.

“You’re not the only one who thinks that way,” Hongjoong laughed, “All the girls that try to hit on him think so too.”

“Don’t put it that way, he’s gonna think I’m a player.” Chan grumbled, setting his phone aside again.

“ _‘Girls’_? Plural?” Changbin asked, and Hongjoong nodded.

“He’s had girls confessing to him left and right since his first semester.” Hongjoong snickered. “And, rumour has it that he made up a fake boyfriend to get people off his back.”

“Felix is obviously not fake,” Chan immediately butt in, and then turned to Changbin. “And before you ask, yes my boyfriend knows I’ve been getting hit on, yes I’ve considered making an ‘announcement’ about it, no Felix told me not to do it because he finds the whole situation funny.” Chan listed off, making Hongjoong laugh. An amused yet slightly concerned smile made its way onto Changbin’s face. Chan honestly sounded so tired of it all by now.

“Then why not just announce it anyway?” Changbin asked.

“Because I don’t have Felix’s permission.” Chan replied plainly. “I’m not the only one in this relationship, so I'm not gonna make decisions pertaining to us if I don't have his consent unless it's like a life or death situation or something,” Chan explained, “And also I love him too much to stop his fun.” Chan shrugged.

“His fun?” Changbin question. Chan sighed, nodding his head.

“He finds the whole thing hilarious, that people are saying he’s basically some sort of mythical creature made from the figment of my imagination.” Chan complained, but it was obvious from his tone that he wasn’t too bothered by his boyfriend’s shenanigans.

“I mean, he _is_ pretty close to being a mythical creature right now. Not a lot of people have actually physically seen him. Pretty sure Minho’s the only one who's seen him in the flesh.” Hongjoong commented, and Changbin turned his attention to him. “Besides, you call him ‘pixie’. Sounds pretty mythical to me.”

“ _Many_ people have seen him in the flesh, he was there at the showcase last year. People just didn’t realise that he’s my boyfriend.” Chan rolled his eyes. “And doesn’t he _look_ like a pixie? I don’t know about you guys, but he looks pretty ethereal to me.” At that, Changbin became little curious. Felix’s face might have been full view on Chan’s lock screen, but honestly it was a bad angle.

“People thought he was your little brother, hyung. People thought you had three younger siblings.” Hongjoong snickered.

“That sounds like a _them_ problem.” Chan grumbled.

“How does he look like anyway?” Changbin thought that it was time to ask, curiosity getting the better of him. One, because Chan had called Felix _ethereal_ , and two because people apparently managed to mistake him for Chan’s younger brother.

Changbin saw Chan pique up a bit, retrieving his phone again and unlocking it, then turning his phone to Changbin once it was unlocked. On his home screen was the same boy, Felix, in the middle of some sort of field, tall crops surrounding him but not obscuring him. He was staring dead into the camera, just the slightest of smiles on his lips, pretty freckles on full display.

Chan was right. Felix _was_ ethereal. He could probably be the definition of objective beauty.

And also, those people were _crazy_ , Felix and Chan looked nothing alike, they couldn’t be brothers. At least not by blood. Felix had a small button nose, double eyelids, and a prominent cupid’s bow. Features Chan just didn’t have. (Don’t get it wrong, though, Changbin wasn’t calling Chan ugly)

“Pretty, isn’t he?” Chan asked, facing his phone back to himself and smiling at the picture.

“He is. I can understand why you call him _pixie_ now.” Changbin nodded.

“Man, you really are whipped, hyung.” Hongjoong teased, but a gentle smile was gracing his lips.

“I never said I wasn’t.”

_Yeah, those people were definitely crazy._

Just from this interaction alone, Changbin could tell that Chan was madly in love. Changbin shook his head, going back to his work, Hongjoong and Chan following suit.

_Some people are just more blind than others, I suppose._

When Minho and Chan became sophomores, Minho hadn’t really expected a lot to change.

The biggest change was that he met Changbin. The freshman looked intimidating at first, even Minho was little reluctant to make friends with him when Chan had first introduced them, but they had quickly clicked after a few minutes of conversation.

But nothing much else really changed. Chan's lock screen photo was now a picture of him and Felix while his home screen was a picture of Felix instead of the other way around, but that wasn’t really a change it was still all very much _Felix_. Hell, if you were to open Chan’s wallet, the first thing you would see is a picture of the two of them slotted in the ID pocket rather than his actual ID. Another thing was people were still trying hit on Chan no matter how many times he very explicitly told numerous people already that he had a boyfriend, just that this time some boys tried their luck as well. Minho thinks that all those people didn’t believe Chan because they hadn’t actually physically seen Felix yet, and apparently them not knowing Felix actually does, in fact, exist means that Chan had to have made up a fake boyfriend to get people to stop hitting on him.

What a bunch of idiots, they all are.

Chan didn’t post on social media often, but on the few posts Chan already had up and the even fewer he put up since university started, Felix was a frequent guest. One or two posts were even dedicated solely to the boy. Hell, one of his most recent posts was a series of pictures that were taken during Christmas break, and amongst the pictures he had with his family and Felix's family, the last one was solely of the two of them in the snow laughing and smiling at each other as they held each other in their arms. They looked completely in love with each other.

And yet, all people did was ask if Felix was his younger brother. Yeah, when Minho saw that for the first time, he almost died laughing.

And Minho loved his friends. He really did. And he loved seeing his friends happy. That part didn’t change either.

But, what did change, is that he was disgusted by their blatant display of love in front of him. Watching Felix and Chan interacting was always a gamble. Sometimes they were bearable, sometimes they made Minho gag.

Like right now. He really, really wants to gag.

They were back in that same barbeque place, over a year after their first meeting. They had just finished their first semester as sophomores, and finals had kicked their ass. The weeks leading up to finals week and also finals week itself was hectic with last minute touches to project submissions for their studio classes, and cramming for their theory classes. Chan and Felix hadn’t even been able to have a phone call with each other in two weeks, so the second Chan had finished his last exam, he had called Felix and invited him out to eat. Felix had readily said yes, and the couple even invited Minho to eat with them. Minho wanted to say no because he didn’t want to third wheel, but Felix himself insisted he come, so he ended up agreeing.

And here they were now, three days later.

Chan and Felix weren’t even being lovey dovey with each other, yeah Chan had his arm wrapped loosely around Felix’s waist but that was a level of PDA Minho was fine with, and also they were talking about pretty mundane stuff, but they just sounded so in love and so domestic. Minho swears he can see the whipped dripping out of their eyes. He really should’ve said no to the invite. But Felix is hard to deny, and so is good meat.

“Would you two _get a room_.” Minho drawled from his place across them.

“Shut up, you’re just bitter.” Felix immediately shot back, turning his attention to Minho, and Chan chuckled.

“I came out here, thinking I would have a nice, peaceful dinner but I have to endure you two being _disgusting_. Of course I’m bitter.” Minho fought, and it was then that their serving of meat arrived.

“Then go get laid or something.” Felix immediately replied as he simply placed the meat on the grill. At that, Chan snorted. Minho’s jaw dropped in disbelief. _The nonchalance of it all_.

“Man, why are high school kids so horny, why do you kids like talking about fucking so much.” Minho complained.

“You started it, old man.” Felix replied and Minho really couldn’t believe what he was hearing. At this point, Chan was almost choking on his own laughs. It wasn’t often that _Minho_ of all people would be rendered speechless by snark.

“Chan, _please_ come and collect your boyfriend.” Minho almost pleaded.

“You deserved that.” Chan said as he tried calm down, and Minho just stopped trying to fight the high schooler. Yes, Felix was adorable. And he was very respectful and sometimes shy. Most of the time. But he knew how to fight back, both literally and figuratively, and once you made friends with him you would soon find out he had a sharp tongue.

“Oh yeah, I actually wanted to ask you something, that’s why I wanted you to come,” Felix suddenly said once they had started eating, and Minho only hummed as he ate a piece of meat.

“Could you tell me about the process of how you got into dance for university?” Felix asked, and Minho’s eyebrow raised.

“You wanna study dance for uni?” Minho asked, and Felix nodded.

“Are you doing this because you _want_ to, or is it because you want to follow Chan hyung?” Minho asked, no teasing whatsoever in his voice. And Chan and Felix seemed to understand that. “Because I’m gonna tell you now, Lix, doing dance won’t secure a future for you; almost _none_ of the arts will secure a future for you.” Minho warned. “So I want to be sure that you _want_ to do this, you’re _sure_ you want this, and that you’re passionate enough to plough through 4 years of a degree _and_ _then_ a few more years after and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears before you can land a secure job. Only the lucky ones get job security right after getting their degree.” Minho explained.

Minho wasn’t dumb. He knew how unsure his future is, he knew that his decision was risky. He’s fought with his parents too many times to count in the past because of his decision. But he has long known what he wanted, and he was willing to make all the sacrifices just so he could do what he loved. Felix was someone that he had personally known for only a little more than a year. But he had come to care for the younger boy like he was his real younger brother. And while he knew that Felix had been dancing, performing, and choreographing (albeit mostly for school plays and recitals) since he was younger, he didn’t want Felix to make a heat of the moment decision. He didn’t want Felix to go through sufferings he might not be aware of and might not be ready to go through. He needed to make sure that Felix had thought about this thoroughly before he gave him any type of advice.

“I’m not going to lie and say Channie hyung didn’t influence my decision at all,” Felix started, “But I’m doing this because I want to, and I’m sure I do.” Felix continued. “I’ll be graduating high school soon, and I’ve been thinking about this seriously since last year. I’ve talked about it with Channie hyung a few times,” At that Chan nodded, “And he’s already told me about the uncertainty of it all. But I want to do this. I _really_ want to do this.” Felix said, voice sure.

“Are you willing to suffer for your dream?” Minho asked.

“I am.” Felix immediately replied, voice surer than before. Chan looked explicably proud next to him.

“Well then, you better get a rough portfolio ready, then. Our university’s Arts’ school admissions open in September for next year’s March intake.” Minho informed, finally taking another bite. Everyone at the table had stopped eating momentarily due to the seriousness of the topic they were discussing.

Felix absolutely beamed.

“Thank you, Minho hyung, really.” Felix smiled brightly, and Minho hummed as he smiled.

“Also, the audition process might overlap with the CSATs if you audition a little later, so you have to be prepared to possibly have to deal with both auditions and the CSATs concurrently.” Minho informed, before he went into the specifics of the auditions as Felix listened intently.

Chan watched the two silently, a soft smile on his face. Chan knew first-hand just how serious and passionate about dance and performing Felix was. It was one of the things that made him fall in love with Felix; the boy was young, but the passion he had for the art went beyond his age. Chan had the same passion in himself, but for music.

He has had his uncertainties, still does sometimes, but Felix, Felix was steadfast and tenacious above all else. Chan had no choice but to just trust his boyfriend.

And watching him look so focused on whatever information Minho was providing him, and looking pleased at the same time, Chan figured he didn’t make a bad choice.

Felix would have to face difficulties. Felix would be hurt. Felix would have to suffer for his dream. That was out of Chan’s control. But what was in Chan’s control, was being beside Felix and supporting him and loving him in every which way he could.

And the world best believe that he would always be right there beside him.

It was the second semester now. Chan, Changbin, and Minho all sat at a table in the café, working on their studio class submissions for midterms. The café was relatively quiet, only being around half full, with only the occasional sound of the café’s equipment going off whenever someone ordered and anyone who spoke did so in hushed tones. It was still a little early on in the semester for most students to start cramming for midterms, and it was Friday; most students were probably out in town.

It was now evening.

Suddenly, the bell above the door rang, and both Minho and Changbin looked up to see a high schooler, judging from the uniform he had on. Chan was unaware, still working on his laptop with his headphones on. It felt like Changbin had seen him somewhere before, but he couldn’t attach a name to the face, so he was just about to look back down to his notebook to continue mulling over lyrics, but then he saw Minho slightly straighten up and eyebrows raise in either surprise or question, or both. Changbin couldn’t really tell. He then saw the boy walk towards their table, only sparking more questions in his head.

The boy stopped behind Chan, immediately wrapping his arms around Chan’s shoulders, who whipped his head around in shock. The boy laughed as Chan took off his earphones.

“What are you doing here?” Chan asked. Changbin took a glance at Minho, who now had a teasing smirk on, only confusing Changbin more. “Home is so far from here, how did you get here? How did you even know I was here specifically?” Chan asked the boy again, who only giggled as he wrapped his arms around Chan again, hugging his head to his chest before he kissed the crown of Chan’s head. Chan’s arm almost immediately wrapped around the boy’s waist. Changbin looked on incredulously. _Who was this boy?_

“Took the train,” The boy replied simply, “And I asked Minho hyung where you were.” The boy then moved Chan’s head away from his chest to instead look at his face. “You weren’t answering my calls or texts.” The boy pouted.

“I’m sorry, pixie, I was focused on my work.” Chan replied, standing up and hugging the boy, running a hand up and down the boy’s back.

_Oh._

_Pixie?_

“But you’re still so far from home!” Chan exclaimed, pulling away from the hug. “It’s an hour and a half journey!” Chan chastised. Changbin’s head was a little clearer now, but still very confused. Minho had since gone back to his choreography blocking.

“You promised you’d come home tonight.” The boy pouted again, and Changbin saw Chan’s eyes widen.

“Oh shit, that’s tonight?” Chan asked, checking his phone for the date. The boy only hummed as he nodded his head.

“I’m so sorry, pixie, it escaped my mind.” Chan said, saving his work and already packing his stuff. Minho was unfazed, Changbin was still looking on, confusion written all over his face.

“I’ll be heading off first, guys, I forgot I was supposed to have dinner with my family.” Chan said once he had finished packing all his stuff in his bag. “I won’t be coming back tonight, don’t wait up for me.” Chan said, directed at Minho, taking the boy’s hand in his and entwining their fingers.

“Yeah, I know.” Minho replied plainly.

“Changbin, if you have anything you want me to listen to for a second opinion, just send it to me. I’ll get back to you sometime after 10pm, probably.” Chan said, this time to Changbin.

“Uh, okay.” Changbin could only reply thoughtlessly, still so confused.

“Alright, see you guys.” Chan bid before he started walking away, the boy he held hands with waving politely at them as they left. Minho waved back, smiling, before he went back to his blocking again. Changbin raised his hand to wave back, more an instinct than an actual reaction. He saw Chan kiss the back of the boy’s hand before they started to stray further away from view.

“… What the hell just happened?” Changbin asked, and Minho looked up at him as he hummed. Seeing the absolute confusion in the younger’s face, Minho couldn’t help but laugh. “Would you stop laughing, I’m in so much confusion right now.” Changbin chided.

“You just met Felix, that’s what happened.” Minho chuckled, and everything clicked in place in Changbin’s mind, his mouth opening as a soft and drawled out ‘ah’ came out of his mouth.

“Felix, as in Chan hyung’s boyfriend?” Changbin asked, just to be sure.

Minho nodded. “The one and only.”

“He’s very cute.” Changbin said, after a beat of silence. “I can see why you seem to have a soft spot for him, too.”

“I do _not_ have a soft spot for him.” Minho’s head shot up, almost offended.

“Yeah, sure you don’t.” Changbin scoffed, going back to his lyrics as Minho huffed.

One thing that Changbin found out during the months of his friendship with the sophomore, was that Minho might seem prickly and devious, but he was soft at his core and cared about his friends deeply. He just never liked showing or admitting to it out in the open. He shows he cares with small actions like paying for your food if you have a meal with him. Changbin was honestly a little scared of Minho when he first met him, but now he was a friend he was glad he made.

Chan and Felix were in the Lees’ living room, sitting on the couch with an unopened envelope in front of them on the coffee table, the university’s emblem printed on it big and proud. Felix’s family was sitting around them.

It was mid-November, Felix had just taken the CSATs at the start of the month. He could’ve received his application results earlier, maybe even before he sat for the CSATs, but Felix had only auditioned last month, in October. Felix wasn’t exactly confident in getting in, but he wasn’t hopeless either, so he put in his best for the CSATs. He still had to pass the minimum entry requirements if he passed the auditions, anyway.

The second Felix saw the envelope in the mailbox earlier that day, he had called Chan and told him his audition results had come in. The moment Chan was out of his last class that day, he made the drive back home to be there when Felix read the letter. Not so secretly, Chan hoped that Felix had gotten in.

“I’m nervous,” Felix uttered, slumping against Chan. “What if I didn’t get in?”

Chan wrapped an arm around his shoulders, rubbing Felix’s arm to calm him. “I’m sure that won’t be the case, pixie. I _know_ you did great. I have faith in you.”

“We have faith in you too, darling.” Felix’s mother encouraged from beside them, smiling at her son gently. Beside her, Felix’s father had a smile of his own on his lips.

“Could you just open it? The suspense is killing all of us.” Olivia complained. Felix threw a glare at her, but he reached for the envelope anyway, hands still shaking.

Slowly and carefully, _very_ slowly and carefully, Felix peeled the envelope open. Once the flap was free, Felix gripped the paper inside, but stopped there, still unbelievably nervous. Chan noticed it, giving Felix’s arm a light squeeze to encourage him. Felix looked at him, smiling thankfully, before he took a deep breath and slipped the paper out of the envelope, immediately bringing it to his chest to avoid seeing its contents first.

“Wait, I want to see it first. Alone.” Felix requested, turning to face Chan. Chan nodded understandingly, removing his arm from Felix and moving away slightly to give him space. Felix took another deep breath, releasing it shudderingly, and finally pulled the paper back so he could read it, reading deliberately slowly to make sure he didn’t misread anything.

“We at the university would like to…” The suspense was thick in the air as Felix began reading, “Congratulate you for passing the auditions for placement in the Bachelor of Arts, Dance!” Felix announced, smile on his face wide. He looked over to Chan, who had the same expression on his face. And before Chan could even recover from the revelation, Felix threw himself onto him, wrapping his arms around Chan’s neck and squealing in delight, causing the two of them topple backwards. Chan laughed excitedly, hugging the ecstatic boy back tightly as Felix’s family congratulated him.

“I told you, pixie!” Chan exclaimed, “I told you you would get in.” Chan said, kissing the side of Felix’s head.

Felix retracted his head to look at Chan, mouth open in a wide and joyful smile. Chan smiled back at him. Felix, overcome with emotion, lurched forward and kissed Chan. Chan was surprised, but nevertheless welcomed the kiss.

“Ew! Get a room, you two!” They heard Olivia exclaim, fake gagging. Chan couldn’t help but laugh into the kiss, and Felix separated himself from Chan’s lips to stick his tongue out at her. It wasn’t as if this was their first time kissing in front of them, but this _was_ the first time that they were so obvious with it.

“Shut up, you’re just jealous I beat you and bagged your crush for myself.” Felix retorted, and everyone except Olivia couldn’t help but laugh at that. It was an open secret that Olivia had (and still has) a little crush on Chan. On that aspect, Felix really couldn’t help but think that he and his sister were very much alike. Yeah, it was a little weird knowing your sister had a crush on your boyfriend, but at least she had good taste in men. She was past the stage of wanting to actually date Chan, anyway.

Olivia’s jaw dropped, face going red. “Mom! Felix is being mean!” She cried, pointing at Felix as she looked at their mother, petulant. The woman could do nothing but laugh.

“Felix, stop rubbing the fact into your sister’s face.” The woman jokingly reprimanded Felix. Olivia cried out ‘mom!’ again, betrayed that no one was taking her embarrassment seriously. Felix snickered a little, rolling off of Chan and slotting himself in the small space between the backrest of the couch and his boyfriend, cuddling into Chan’s side.

“Pixie, that was a little mean.” Chan chuckled, moving an arm to instead wrap it around Felix’s shoulders to make the position more comfortable for the both of them. Felix just pouted up at him before he nuzzled his face into Chan’s neck. Chan couldn’t help but smile at him adoringly.

“Well, now that things are settled,” Felix’s mother stood up, “I’m gonna go get dinner started.” She said, walking towards the kitchen. “Chan, honey, are you staying for dinner?” Felix’s mother asked, and Felix looked up at him expectantly. Chan wasn’t expecting to be able to leave their house any earlier than 9pm, anyway. Both Felix and his mother were very hard to say no to.

“I would love to, momma.” Chan replied, and Felix smiled contentedly, nuzzling his head in Chan’s neck again.

Things went on as a usual evening in the Lees’ house; While Felix’s mother got dinner ready, his father watched the news in the living room, and Olivia had retreated back into her room to do her homework. Chan and Felix remained in the living room, finding their position too comfortable to move, conversation hushed.

“Oh wait, I just realised,” Felix suddenly said, and Chan hummed, looking down at Felix. “Are we going to be one of those disgusting campus couples?” Felix grimaced. Chan laughed.

“No offence, pixie, but we’re technically already the disgusting campus couple and have been since high school.” Chan laughed, tapping Felix’s nose. “And, you’re clingy. It’s only a matter of time before we do end up as the ‘disgusting campus couple’.”

“Oh hush, you love my clinginess. You would’ve left my ass in _middle school_ if you didn’t like it.” Felix scoffed. “And you’ve spent two years of people being convinced that you’re single, I don’t think we’re the campus couple quite yet.”

“And whose fault is that, huh?” Chan asked, no heat in his voice, as he pinched Felix’s nose gently. Felix scrunched his nose and shook his head, getting Chan’s fingers off of him.

“It’s not _my_ fault people are dumb and blind.” Felix retorted, kissing Chan’s neck gently.

“That, it isn’t.” Chan chuckled, kissing Felix forehead.

“Nothing’s gonna stop me from loving you out in the open though, let’s see if people still don’t get the memo then.” Felix said, nuzzling up against Chan’s neck again. Chan tightened his hold on Felix.

“If you think _I’m_ the one that would stop you, think again.” Chan said. “But, I do know who might try and stop you.”

“Who?”

“Minho.”

Felix couldn’t help the snort that came out of him.

“Hey, Changbin, do you want to move in with Minho and I?” Chan asked.

Chan, Changbin, and Minho were sat in the cafeteria, grabbing lunch before their next classes started. Up until then, no one had really said anything, so the question was a surprise to Changbin.

“Uh, huh?” Was all Changbin could say.

“Minho and I have been planning to move out of the dorms since last semester, we couldn’t take it anymore.” Chan started explaining. “We’ve been looking for a few months and actually found a pretty decent apartment that came without either 15 problems or 15 ridiculous conditions from the landlord. It’s got an extra bedroom, and rent is a little bit on the pricier side bit still pretty manageable, so we thought it’d be a good idea to ask you to come with. Rent would be even more manageable with another person.”

“Oh, are you two sure? About asking _me_?” Changbin asked. He didn’t completely hate the dorms quite yet, but it did get a little stuffy and frustrating, especially on those nights when he’s up all night doing up tracks. His roommate was pretty understanding and never really complained about those nights, but Changbin often felt bad about maybe disturbing the guy’s sleep. The promise of his own room was pretty enticing.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t we be?” This time it was Minho who asked.

“But, don’t you want to ask Felix instead?” Changbin asked, turning his gaze to Chan. “You mentioned that he was gonna study here next year, right?”

“Yeah, he is,” Chan nodded, “But he says he’d rather live in the dorms first, to live out the ‘true university experience’ he said,” Chan playfully rolled his eyes. “Whatever that means, anyway.” Changbin his chuckles.

“He sounds like such a character, hyung, I really wanna meet him properly.” Changbin said. “Besides, anyone who’s got even _Minho hyung_ wrapped around his finger is pretty amazing.” Chan laughed at that, while Minho glared at him.

“I’ll have you two meet soon, promise.” Chan chuckled. “Anyway, you don’t have to give us an answer like right now, though. We’re already pretty much set on moving, the only thing left is signing the lease and actually moving in. We’re probably moving in right after finals.” Chan said.

“Sure, I’ll think about it.” Changbin replied, nodding. “But, I’m probably gonna say yes, anyway.”

“Great! I’ll just text you all the details of the lease and the apartment later so you can weigh all your choices properly.” Chan replied, and all of them resumed eating.

Felix’s heart was beating loud in his chest as he eagerly waited in line to get on stage and claim his diploma.

He was finally graduating high school, and in a month he would be heading off to university.

He was finally going to be together with Chan again. No more hasty video calls when they couldn’t afford longer ones, no more dates that only came about once a month if they were lucky, no more yearning for Chan’s physical touch and not being able to do anything about it. And above all, no more distance.

Sooner rather than later, Felix’s name was called. He threw a quick glance to the spectators, eyes quickly zeroing in on Chan. He was easy to find. Apart from the very recognisable blonde, messy, curly locks that Chan has had for a year now, Felix was certain he would never miss his boyfriend no matter how big the crowd was. Chan was smiling widely at him, and Felix smiled back before he took a deep breath, bringing a hand up to the necklace resting underneath his school uniform, clutching the lock pendant in his hand.

Felix was more than ready.

“We did it!” Came Donghyuck’s loud voice as he hugged the two tightly. Felix and Jaemin both laughed, overjoyed, hugging him back.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I really thought I was about to fail all of my CSATs papers, thank god I didn’t.” Jaemin said jokingly, making the other two laugh.

“You’re one to talk, those exams were hell for me. Why did they have to phrase those questions like that?” Felix whined, and the two laughed at him.

Jaemin’s eyes suddenly focused on something behind Felix, and Donghyuck noticed, immediately looking at what Jaemin had zoned in on, and then a teasing smirk made it’s way on to his lips.

“Hey Felix, your husband’s here.” Donghyuck teased, but the sentence carried such a sense of nostalgia that Felix didn’t even think of arguing with what Donghyuck said. Instead, Felix turned around to see Chan with a bouquet of flowers in his hands, a wide, proud smile on his lips. The scene was familiar, it felt like déjà vu. Felix remembered this is almost exactly how Chan’s high school graduation went, except the roles were reversed then. Back then, Chan was the one graduating, and Felix was the one holding the flowers. The memory caused emotion to surge within Felix.

Chan barely had any time to react as Felix barrelled into him, somehow still managing to save the bouquet as Felix wrapped his arms around Chan tightly, burying his face into Chan’s neck. Chan laughed, wrapping his arms around Felix. “Congratulations, bubby.” Chan whispered, and then he felt a wetness at his neck. He separated Felix from him, seeing tears streaming down his eyes. “Oh, bubby, why’re you crying _again_? You did this at my graduation too.” Chan teased. Felix allowed a chuckle.

“I’m emotional right now, you asshole.” Felix said, in between a laugh and a sob, as he wiped his tears away. Chan could only laugh before he went in and kissed Felix’s nose bridge gently.

“Oop, I think that is our cue to _leave_.” Jaemin said from where he and Donghyuck stood a little off the side to the couple. Felix released his hold on Chan to go to his friends, hugging both of them tightly. Jaemin and Donghyuck smiled, hugging him back.

“Thank you guys so much for being my friends. I wouldn’t have survived school if it weren’t for you two.” Felix thanked, and Jaemin rubbed his back.

“Of course, we wouldn’t have it any other way.” Jaemin replied. “Thank _you_ for trusting us enough to be our friend.”

The three friends stayed hugging for a few more moments before they separated, and Felix swore he saw tears in both their eyes. “Make sure you stay in touch, okay?” Donghyuck said.

Jaemin and Donghyuck were both set to go off to the university in Seoul as well, but not in the same one as Felix and Chan, separating the three.

“Of course, we’ll all still be in Seoul, anyway.” Felix smiled. It was then that Chan approached them, immediately wrapping an arm around Felix’s shoulders. Felix took the bouquet off of Chan’s arms before he wrapped his free arm around Chan’s waist.

“Thank you two for taking such good care of Felix while I was gone.” Chan thanked, smiling at the two.

“Oh, you just reminded me why I had a crush on you in first year high school.” Donghyuck commented, mostly jokingly.

“Hey, keep your claws away from him, he’s mine.” Felix fought playfully, and the two playfully glared at each other. Jaemin rolled his eyes at the two, and Chan laughed.

“Alright kids, stop fighting.” Chan chuckled, before he turned his attention back to the two. “But really, thank you. Especially you, Jaemin.”

“Me?” Jaemin asked, pointing at himself.

“Yeah,” Chan nodded, “You’ve been with Felix ever since his first day in middle school. I know you’ve helped him a lot.” Chan smiled.

“Oh, uh, it’s nothing, really.” Jaemin said, bashfully.

“I can’t believe you, Jaemin, you’re trying to take my crush too.” Donghyuck fake cried, wiping away fake tears.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’m telling Mark hyung you’re cheating on him.” Jaemin rolled his eyes, eliciting a ‘hey!’ from Donghyuck. “Anyway, we’ll leave you two now.” Jaemin said, turning his attention back to Chan and Felix. “We’ll see you soon, Felix.” Jaemin smiled, and then waved.

Felix smiled back, waving his hand as his friends walked away.

“Are you sad?” Chan asked, gently squeezing his shoulder.

“A little, yeah, I’m going to miss them.” Felix replied. “But I’ll live. They’ll be in Seoul, too.” Felix then turned to face Chan. “Besides, I spent two years without you by my side, I think I’ll be able to survive without those two devils.”

Chan laughed, leaning forward and pecking Felix’s lips. “That’s a little mean, pixie.”

“Oh, let me be. I’m just speaking the truth.” Felix smiled up at Chan, wrapping his arms around Chan’s neck loosely before he pulled his boyfriend in for a proper kiss.

“My sons!” A voice suddenly called, and the couple separated and turned to see Felix’s family approaching them. It was Felix’s mom that had called out to them. Chan let go of his hold on Felix and stepped aside to allow Felix’s mother to have her moment with her son. Once the small lady was in front of her son, she threw her arms around him, hugging Felix tightly. Felix’s father joined in on the hug, wrapping his arms around his wife and son. “Channie oppa!” Olivia called excitedly, and Chan turned to the girl with a smile, entertaining her as Felix had his moment with his parents.

“Congratulations on graduating, my baby.” Felix’s mother said as she and her husband separated from Felix. Felix felt his emotions stir again, and a fresh set of tears streamed down his face. His mother cooed as she cupped Felix’s face and wiped his tears away, his father patting his shoulder, gentle smile on his face.

“Congratulations, son.” Felix’s father smiled, and Felix went in to hug his father tightly. The man smiled, giving Felix’s back a gentle yet solid pat.

“Are you ready to leave high school and go to university, my boy?” His father asked when they separated. Felix’s tears were mostly dry by now.

“I guess,” Felix replied, wiping away the few stray tears. “But I don’t really have a choice, do it?” Felix asked, making his parents laugh.

“I suppose you don’t.” His father said.

“But I’m sure you’ll be fine, you’ll have Chan with you.” His mother reassured, smiling at him gently. Felix returned the smile, nodding.

“Speaking of,” His father started, calling Felix’s attention to him. “I think your younger sister is trying to steal your boyfriend away from you.” His father smiled teasingly, pointing to where Chan and Olivia were, talking.

“Hey!” Felix called, getting Chan and Olivia’s attention. “Stop trying to steal my boyfriend away from me!” Felix said as he stalked off to where they were. Olivia stuck her tongue out at Felix, who then went after her. As the two siblings played a mini game of tag, the Lee parents and Chan watched, laughing.

Felix’s family, along with Chan, had gone for lunch when they left the school before they returned home. Chan had spent some time with his family, before the two families went out for dinner together to celebrate Felix’s graduation and also his acceptance to university. During dinner, Chan had asked for Felix’s parents’ permission to bring their son back with him to his shared apartment, not wanting to separate from his boyfriend yet but having to go back to campus that night because he was about to get busy with orientation. Felix’s parents had easily given him their permission, and Chan whisked Felix away once the dinner had ended.

“How does it feel to be finally out of high school?” Chan asked as he inputted the code into the door with one hand while the other held Felix’s.

Felix hummed in thought as he and Chan removed their shoes and set them aside. “Honestly? It hasn’t sunk in just yet. I think I’ll only feel it when I start university in like, two weeks’ time.” Felix replied. Chan hummed in reply.

When they walked in through the entranceway and into the actual living quarters, they were met with Minho in the living room, watching some variety show. Minho then turned his head towards them, eyebrows raising momentarily in surprise when he saw Felix.

“Oh, Felix, you’re here?” Minho asked.

“Yeah, and hello to you too, Minho hyung.” Felix greeted as they walked in.

“He’s spending the night.” Chan informed nonchalantly.

“Yeah, I kinda guessed.” Minho scoffed. “I just wanna say, don’t be too loud, both Changbin and I will be home tonight.” Minho teased. Chan rolled his eyes at him.

“Get your mind outta the gutter,” Chan retorted, “Where is Changbin, anyway?” Chan asked.

“In his room, he mumbled something about getting inspiration after lunch just now and has been in there since. He did come out for a quick dinner, though.” Minho informed. Chan nodded, before he walked towards his bedroom.

“Alright, if he comes out tell him I’m home for me, we’ll just be in my room.” Chan called from the short hallway.

“Alright!” Minho replied. “Oh, and congratulations on graduating, Felix!” Minho called.

“Thanks hyung!” Felix thanked before he closed the door to Chan’s room.

“It’s a bit of a shame that I didn’t get to meet Changbin hyung properly, again. You’ve known him for like a year now and I still haven’t introduced myself to him.” Felix said as he and Chan lied down on the bed. He had taken a quick shower and changed out of his own clothes and into one of Chan’s hoodies and sweats. It was relatively late, so he and Chan had decided to just cuddle up in bed together until sleep claimed them.

“You’ll meet him soon, school’s starting in a couple of weeks.” Chan replied, gently rubbing Felix’s back. Felix hummed, before a yawn escaped him. “You should go to sleep, bubby. You’ve had a long day.” Chan urged gently, only to be met with a whine from Felix.

“Wanna spend more time with you.” Felix whined, looking up at him with the biggest doe eyes and a pout on his lips. Chan sighed internally, knowing he already lost this round. Outwardly, though, Chan placed a kiss on Felix’s pouted lips, and then made a move to retrieve his laptop.

“Get comfortable, then. I’ll put on a movie.”

Changbin looked at the time at the corner of his screen.

It was already two in the morning.

The music production major let out a frustrated sigh. Changbin was working on a track that he suddenly got a burst of inspiration for in the afternoon and had spent the whole day since in his room just crafting the track, but now he had suddenly gotten stuck. He stood up from his chair and exited his room, making his way to the adjacent room to his; Chan’s room. He lived with the upperclassman, might as well take full advantage of it. He vaguely remembered hearing Chan’s voice some hours ago through his headphones, so he was sure that Chan was already back from his hometown, and was probably still awake. In the few weeks Changbin had been living with Chan, he found out his friend didn’t have the best track record when it came to sleeping in general.

Seeing a thin line of light spilling from below the door, Changbin knocked first (it’s common courtesy, c’mon), not waiting for an answer before he opened the door.

“Hey, Chan hyung, could you come and-” Changbin stopped mid-sentence, seeing the scene in front of him.

There his friend lay on his bed, with a boy curled up against him. Chan was on his back with the boy’s head on his chest, so Changbin could see a little bit of the boy’s face, but he had the hood of the hoodie he was wearing up, so really all Changbin could see was a little mess of brown hair and if he squinted he could see some freckles adorning the boy’s face, and his eyes were closed, obviously sleeping.

Changbin knew his friend wasn’t single, he knew who Felix was, and he has seen the boy in both pictures and in person, though they haven’t really met properly yet. Felix was both Chan’s phone lock screen _and_ home screen picture, and has been ever since the first day Changbin had met Chan. Besides, after being friends for almost a year it would be kind of impossible to not have seen Chan’s ‘mysterious’ boyfriend at least once.

But, you see, Changbin couldn’t tell if the boy curled up on Chan’s chest right now was Felix because his face was a little too obscured and the lighting a little too bad, and irrational thoughts like “maybe this isn’t Felix and I just caught Chan hyung cheating” were rushing through his head.

Chan, who had been mindlessly rubbing the boy’s back up until Changbin entered, lifted his head up and brought a finger up to his lips, silently shushing Changbin. But it was too late, the boy was already stirring, and Chan let his head fall back on his pillow and sighed, going back to rubbing his back.

“Uh… sorry? For waking you, I mean.” Was all Changbin could awkwardly utter as the boy brought a balled first up to get rid of the some of the sleep.

“It’s alright.” It was Chan who replied as he sat up, bringing the boy along with him, who simply whined as he was being jostled. Once both boys were in a sitting position, the boy in Chan’s arm twisted his body and wrapped his arms around Chan’s neck, the dynamics of it all having him end up sitting on Chan’s lap. Chan could only chuckle as he wrapped his arms around the boy gently, but tightly. Chan was a friendly guy, and he was never too scared to show affection towards his friends, always welcomed hugs but not one to usually initiate anything. But Changbin had never seen his friend so intimate with anyone before. It felt like he was intruding.

“Pixie, this is Changbin.” Chan said to the boy, who slowly unwound his arms from Chan and turned to Changbin, and languidly inclined his head in greeting without saying a word. The boy hadn’t really even opened his eyes yet, and he was still in Chan’s lap. Changbin decided that, _yeah_ , he really shouldn’t be made to see this.

“Changbin, this is my boyfriend, Felix.” Chan introduced, and Changbin internally let out a sigh of relief. _Chan hyung wasn’t cheating_. Changbin inclined his head back, even though he knew the boy, Felix, wouldn’t see it. Felix simply hummed, before he manoeuvred himself and dropped back onto the bed, seemingly going back to sleep. Chan could only chuckle as he caressed Felix’s head, bursting with affection.

“Did you need something, Binnie?” Chan asked, taking his eyes off of Felix.

“Uh, no, I’m good. It’s not that important.” Changbin replied. “You should go to sleep too, hyung, go back to your baby.” Changbin added, teasing grin on his face, recalling the few times the older man referred to his boyfriend as his ‘baby’.

Chan laughed softly, a light blush creeping up his neck. “Are you sure?” Chan asked, and Changbin nodded.

“Yeah, it can wait.” Changbin waved his hand. “I’ll just leave you two, then.” Changbin said, and Chan nodded. Changbin turned to leave, uttering a soft ‘goodnight’ in return when he heard Chan bid him first. Once he closed Chan’s door, he saw the light disappear from below the door. Changbin just stood there for a few seconds, taking it all in, before he too retreated back to his room. He walked to his desk and turned off his laptop. He had worked on this track long enough, he could just work on it again the next day, when he could easily ask a more awake Chan for his opinion. For now, he should go to bed.

Changbin awoke a few hours later to the sunlight spilling through his blinds. He picked his phone up from where it was on the nightstand to check the time. It was a pretty respectable 10am. Now that he was slightly more awake, Changbin could hear faint sounds coming from outside his door. He just figured it would be Minho making breakfast, so he got up and walked out of his room. He was already awake, might as well try and get Minho to make him some breakfast. He was pretty surprised when he saw Minho just sitting at their breakfast counter on his phone, and someone that was definitely not Chan making pancakes on their stove.

As if feeling his presence, Minho looked up from his phone and at him. “Oh, morning.” Minho simply greeted before going back to his phone, and Changbin simply hummed as he took a seat beside Minho. Felix turned around at Minho’s greeting.

“Oh, Changbin hyung… Right?” Felix asked, and Changbin nodded. “It’s nice to finally officially meet you, I’m Felix. Sorry I couldn’t properly meet you last night, I wasn’t really conscious.” Felix said, smiling apologetically. Changbin couldn’t help but smile, waving his hand as he shook his head.

“That’s no problem, I was the one who barged in on you two anyway.” Changbin replied, voice scratchy from sleep. He rubbed his neck and cleared his throat before he continued. “It’s also nice to finally meet you, by the way.”

“Barged in? My god, Felix, what were you and Chan doing while being fully aware that the other occupants of this house were present?” Minho teased, and Felix flushed.

“Nothing! We were just sleeping.” Felix explained, turning back to the pancakes he remembered he was making. Both Minho and Changbin just laughed.

“Chan hyung seemed pretty awake though.” Changbin joined in on the teasing.

“Changbin hyung! Don’t say such insinuating stuff.” Felix cried as he transferred the pancakes onto the already existing pile beside the stove and turning it off. That was when they heard a door click open from the hallway, and out came Chan, heading straight for the bathroom.

“Hey, are you two bullying my baby?” Chan ‘threatened’, as well as he could after having just woken up anyway, from where he was in the bathroom, washing his face. Chan immediately made his way to his boyfriend after he was done, wrapping his arms around Felix’s waist from behind and kissing his cheek as he greeted the freckled boy a ‘good morning’. Felix just smiled as he greeted his boyfriend back.

“Please, don’t be so gross so early in the morning.” Minho complained.

“Shut up, Minho.” Chan retorted as he helped Felix put the food and plates in front of the two boys.

“Why was Felix cooking instead of you, anyway. He’s the guest in this situation.” Chan asked as he pulled out the two other bar chairs of the breakfast counter, him and Felix taking a seat.

“Hey, he offered to make breakfast. I didn’t tell him to do so. All I did was accept labour-free food.” Minho fought back as he took two pancakes off the pile in the middle, and Felix laughed.

“It’s fine, Channie hyung. I really did offer to make breakfast.” Felix reassured.

“Fine, but it’s because Felix said so. I won’t hesitate to kick you out of this house if I find out you’re bullying my baby.” Chan threatened, no real heat in his voice but they all knew he would remorselessly cut ties with anyone if they treated Felix badly in any way.

“You wouldn’t do that, I help pay the rent of this unit too.” Minho fired back, and everyone laughed as Chan threw a glare with no heat at Minho.

“Oh my god, Felix this tastes great.” Changbin suddenly complimented, being the first to take a bite.

“Oh, really? Thank you, Changbin hyung.” Felix smiled, a little flustered over being complimented. Changbin nodded.

“Chan hyung, if you kick Minho hyung out then make sure you replace him with Felix, he cooks better.” Changbin added, and everyone laughed as Minho made a gesture to hit Changbin.

Once everyone calmed down, a comfortable silence settled between the four as they continued to eat. This wasn’t exactly how Changbin envisioned his first meeting with Felix to be like, but he definitely wasn’t complaining.

Chan wasn’t going to lie, yeah he pulled some strings.

Felix had been so whiny and adorably pitiful the two hectic weeks leading up to orientation that it made Chan weak in the heart. Weaker than he already was for Felix, anyway.

While not technically a part of the council, Chan did many favours for them and offered himself as a volunteer whenever they needed some at events ever since freshman year. He was friends with most of the committee, and with those he wasn’t he was at least cordial with. By the time talks about orientation came about, most of the committee knew who Felix was and who he was to Chan. Jihyo easily caved in when Chan had asked if there was any way they could ensure that Felix was going to be in his group. It was a selfish request, both Chan and Jihyo knew that, but Chan had been nothing but selfless for the past two years. Chan did many things for the council, but had rejected every offer of a position, saying he didn’t like having a title attached to him. Jihyo thought that it was only a fair way to repay Chan for all that he has done for them thus far and had told him he had nothing to worry about.

But, don’t tell Jihyo, Chan thinks that another reason is that the girl had a soft spot for Felix, like all of his university friends who had physically met Felix before.

So, on orientation day, Jihyo made sure to instruct all of the committee members stationed at registration to put a certain _Lee Felix_ in group 4 no matter what. The council members who knew only grinned in reply, and the rest just easily complied to the president’s order.

It worked, because Felix did end up in the group Chan was in charge of. Chan had gotten a pleasant shock when he saw that his boyfriend was sporting soft pastel orange hair. He had wanted to surprise Felix himself by dyeing his hair a more muted, natural-enough colour after two years of being blonde but it seemed that Felix one upped him yet again. The more he looked at his boyfriend's orange hair, the more he decided that he absolutely loved it. His boyfriend was already ethereal as he was with his pretty freckles and elvish features, but the pastel hair made him look even more like a creature of myth.

Another thing was that he was paired with Sana of all people. Chan wasn’t completely sure about this, but he had an inkling that him being paired with Sana was also Jihyo’s doing. There weren’t many people in university who had, knowingly, met Felix before and Sana was one of the few who had. The girl absolutely adored Felix just from that one meeting she had with him, her excitable squealing to Chan still fresh to his ears even though it had been months. Chan would also not hesitate one bit to identify Sana as his best female friend. All in all, the whole situation seemed rather orchestrated to allow Chan and Felix to be together. Everything just seemed to be too perfect to be just mere coincidence.

But, Chan wasn’t complaining. He still kept professional, though, his sense of duty still stronger than his want to smother Felix with his love and attention. Felix didn’t seem to mind though, taking every opportunity he had to be beside Chan. Chan didn’t stop him, Felix wasn’t exactly going out of his way to create chances to interact with Chan, in fact his boyfriend spent most of his day with that tall boy, Hyunjin. Everything in the day just seemed to arrange themselves _for_ Chan and Felix. By now, Chan really was sure that everything was somehow orchestrated.

Chan also managed to meet Felix’s new friends.

Jisung and Hyunjin, Chan knew. Felix had excitedly messaged him last night talking about how he already loved his new roommate, Jisung. And Hyunjin, Hyunjin was already one of his charges, so he’d been in pretty close contact with the boy the whole day. But the last boy he hadn't heard of. Felix introduced him as Seungmin, Hyunjin’s roommate.

At the dinner, Changbin and Minho were introduced to the three newcomers of their little friend group. The three seemed a little tense, which was understandable, but with one jab at Minho and Changbin, Felix managed to break the ice and helped the other three relax. Chan was proud. Felix had always been a little more shy around new people, but his sunshine personality always managed to shine through no matter what.

Chan was honestly a little worried that the three would still feel a little tense around him and his friends. Chan was a social butterfly, he loved making friends and talking to people, but he rarely made friends with people younger than him because they all just seemed wary of him. Felix had once told him that while most people admired him and liked him on the surface level, many who didn’t know him personally saw him as a slightly scary older brother because of how he presented himself (outgoing and easy to talk to, but with a very deep sense of responsibility).

But as the dinner went on, Chan observed that conversation flowed naturally between everyone. Jisung had easily clicked with him and Changbin easily over their shared major, as did Hyunjin with Minho, and while Seungmin was the lone vocal performance major, he shared the same passion for music as the music production majors had. Everything had to have been orchestrated by the universe, it wasn’t easy to have such a big group of people click so quickly and naturally. But Chan wasn’t complaining. He felt good about this, good about the little family away from home forming right before his eyes.

Chan thought back to all the times he equated Felix to be happiness. Felix was always so shy whenever Chan made that comparison, but if only Felix could see things from Chan’s eyes, he would know that Chan never exaggerated things. It really did seem that Felix truly did bring happiness everywhere he went. Just that this time, it was in the form of three more lifelong friends.

And as Chan made the walk back to his shared apartment that night after having sent the freshmen back to the dorms, a slight spring in his step and a huge smile on his face, Chan couldn’t help but thank the universe for all the blessings it had graciously given him thus far, reserving his biggest thanks for his biggest blessing; Felix.

Chan stared at the open window on his laptop, eyes focused on the ‘checkout’ as he hovered the cursor over it.

He wasn’t worried about the price, price was the least of his concerns when it came to Felix. He was worried if Felix would like it, if Felix would feel burdened about it.

Their third anniversary was only two months away, and it’s not like this was even a last-minute present idea. Chan had wanted to gift Felix a ring ever since they had gotten together, but he just never had the funds to do so. On their first anniversary he gifted Felix a simple bracelet that unfortunately broke after a few months of everyday use. It was admittedly pretty cheap, but it was what Chan could afford back then without asking money from anyone. And then, last year for their second anniversary, he had gifted Felix their couple necklace, the ones with lock and key pendants, a nod at their anniversary tradition of attaching a lovelock at Namsan tower. The necklaces were a little pricier but still a comfortable purchase for someone who had both a paid internship and a separate part-time job going for him.

And don’t get Chan wrong, he knew Felix wasn’t materialistic and would honestly cry even if all Chan gave him was a ring pop and his heartfelt words. ( _Both_ of them would, to be honest. All Felix had to do was _look_ at Chan with those eyes of his and Chan already felt the luckiest guy alive.)

But Felix, his precious little personal piece of heaven and sunshine personified _Felix_ , he deserved to be spoiled with all the riches in the world. And just thankfully this year, he could easily splurge. His internship having turned into a solid part-time job that paid rather well, and he was even listed as one of his company’s in-house freelance producers. His company was small, and most times he wasn’t even hired as a producer, but it sure as hell was one of the better companies to work in as someone who wasn’t even out of university yet.

Chan was so consumed by his thoughts that he didn’t hear the knock on his door and the following click of it opening, Minho walking in. “Chan hyung?” Minho called, trying to get Chan’s attention. When Chan didn’t reply, Minho walked up to him and put a hand of his shoulder, the older male jumping and immediately snapping out of his thoughts as he whipped his head to look at Minho.

“Oh, Minho, you scared me.” Chan said, putting a hand against his rapidly beating heart. “What was it that you needed?” Minho didn’t answer, having seen the window open on Chan’s computer.

“Are you planning on _proposing_ to Felix?” Minho asked incredulously, because it sure as hell looked like he was buying engagement rings.

“What? No!” Chan immediately rebuked. “These are promise rings.”

“Those are _Swarovski_ , hyung.” Minho pointed out.

“But they’re not that expensive!” Chan fought back, pointing at the price.

Chan was right, thought. For Swarovski rings, they didn’t cost as much as Minho was expecting. They went for a little less than 80,000 won a piece. That still wasn’t a price that most _university_ _students_ living off campus would be comfortable paying though.

“Alright, Mr Show-off, don’t have to flex your pay on us broke ones.” Minho rolled his eyes.

“You’re speaking as if your job doesn’t pay well, too.” Chan rebutted.

“Not as well as yours, though.” Minho retorted. “But, well, why aren’t you just buying it?” Minho asked. “Are you second guessing things?”

“Second guessing our relationship? No, never.” Chan immediately denied. “But second guessing whether Felix will like it? Yeah.”

“But why, though?” Minho asked, “Felix would like anything you give him, even if you gave him used wrapping paper. As long as it comes from the bottom of your heart.”

“That’s the thing,” Chan sighed, “I know he would be happy with anything, and I know he values sentiment above all else, but I’m scared he would feel burdened by this. But then again, on the other hand, I just want to spoil him and give everything in the world to him. He deserves it.” Chan said, running a hand down his tired face, letting his head hang off of the backrest of his chair as he stared at the ceiling. “I don’t _know_ if I should buy them.”

It was silent for a while, both Chan and Minho thinking.

“Tell me, hyung, did you want to buy them because you attached a sentiment to them and not because it’s to flaunt your wealth?” Minho asked, breaking the silence.

“Yes, I did.” Chan nodded.

“Then, are you planning to buy them because you want to showcase your heartfelt feelings for Felix?”

“Yes, of course.” Chan nodded again.

“Then, hyung, do you love Felix from the bottom of your heart? With all the sincerity that you have?”

“Yes, that isn’t even a question.” Chan stared at Minho as if he had grown another head.

“Then, you have your answer.” Minho simply smiled at him before he turned around and walked to the door, closing it as he exited the room.

Chan sat there, looking at the closed door for a few moments. He then turned back to his laptop screen, hovered his cursor over the ‘checkout’ button, and then finally clicked it.

Chan might be obsessed with the ring on Felix’s finger, with how it glinted every time it caught some light. With how it looked like it had always belonged, snugly wrapped around Felix’s finger. Chan doesn’t know why he waited so long to give him a ring.

(Yes he does, it’s because he wanted it to be absolutely _perfect._ )

All he’s done ever since they sat down was stare at the ring on Felix’s finger, the person himself was talking to Seungmin sat on the other side of him, tuning out all the conversations happening around him.

“Channie hyung?” He didn’t even hear Felix calling out to him. He didn’t even realise Seungmin had turned to his other side and started talking to Minho and Changbin about god knows what.

“Bubby?” Felix tried again, this time placing a gentle hand on Chan's thigh, effectively snapping him out of his stupor.

“Huh?” Was all Chan could utter, making Felix chuckle. Felix brought both hands up to cup Chan’s cheeks, the ring on his finger felt cool on his right cheek and his heart absolutely swelled, before Felix squished his cheeks together.

“Are you ignoring me, your boyfriend?” Felix asked, teasing. “What’s got you so distracted, huh?”

“You,” Chan replied, a little mumbly because Felix was squishing his cheeks, as he wrapped his hand gently around Felix’s hands and removing them from his cheeks. Turning his head, he pressed a kiss on Felix’s left palm, close to his ring. “And also your ring, have I told you how much I love it?”

Felix flushed, removing his hands from Chan’s grasp and weakly hitting Chan’s chest. “Stop, you’re so embarrassing.” Felix mumbled, before he took Chan’s hand in his again and rested their hands on his thigh. “And, yes, you have. Only about a million times, though.”

“I really should have given you a ring sooner.” Chan said, bringing Felix’s hand up and kissing the ring. “Oh, yeah. Mom sent me a video of Berry doing tricks last night. She was very cute, you’ll love it.” Chan said, using his free hand to take his phone out from his pocket.

“What are you talking about, Berry’s _always_ cute.” Felix replied, smiling. “I’m kind of heartbroken though, that momma didn’t send it to me.” Felix pouted.

“Oh hush, who’s the son here, me or you?” Chan asked jokingly, opening his chat with his mom to show Felix the aforementioned video.

“Hey, ever since you left for university, I became the de facto eldest son of the Bang family along with being the only son of the Lee family.” Felix playfully jabbed.

“Yeah, well, keep it up and you’ll legally be a son of the Bang family and _I’ll_ be the oldest son of the Lee family.” Chan replied, and the absolute nonchalance Chan had while making such an implication made Felix blush a bright red.

“You can’t just say that type of thing,” Felix whined, knocking his forehead against Chan’s shoulder and keeping it there. Chan chuckled, setting his phone atop his thigh so that he can use his hand to rub Felix’s back soothingly.

“We’ve talked about it before, why are you so affected now?” Chan asked rhetorically, before he picked his phone up again. “Now come, watch Berry be cute.” At that, Felix picked up his head and brought his chair a little closer to Chan’s to get a better view of the small phone screen.

Chan upped the brightness of his phone and tilted his phone towards Felix to allow better visibility. Felix was already smiling before the video even played, just the sight of the adorable little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was really all it took for Felix to start cooing. But then, Berry sat up straight on her butt and her two front legs started making a begging motion, and Felix couldn’t help but laugh quietly at the cuteness.

Chan felt all of the air leave his lungs.

Felix was always pretty. But a laughing Felix was impossibly prettier, eyes crinkling in joy as his pretty laughs reverberated in Chan’s ears no matter how low and soft they were. Chan already felt like kissing Felix 90% of the time, but seeing him look so happy has always brought that up to 100%. So he did just that, he leaned forward and gave his boyfriend a kiss on his pretty lips, just a quick peck to satiate his ever present want to pepper kisses on his lover.

And Felix wasn’t even phased by the surprise kiss that seemingly came from nowhere. They’ve been together long enough that Felix was mostly immune to Chan’s tendency to drop surprise kisses on him. He was just about go in and give Chan a peck of his own when they heard someone shrieking. Felix jumped, Chan shot his head up to look at the source.

It was Hyunjin, the tall boy having shot up in his chair. He was promptly pulled back down by Jisung.

Chan was about to ask what was the matter when Hyunjin practically screeched out a “Did no one see them kiss?!” as he pointed accusingly at the couple.

So that’s how Chan came to know that Hyunjin had _no idea at all_ thus far that he and Felix were dating. Chan had figured that Hyunjin found out at the showcase when he walked into the dressing room, but apparently the boy just _did not_ see them.

And that got Chan thinking; were some people really that blind and clueless? Or were Chan and Felix just that secretive about their relationship, to the point that even their close friends couldn’t draw the conclusion themselves _until_ they physically saw Chan and Felix engage in a great act of intimacy? Chan didn’t think so. He wouldn’t call their relationship a secret. He would call it _private_ , but never a secret. When asked, Chan would always tell people that his boyfriend was Felix, and he knew Felix was the same, except he always referred to Chan as _Chris_. Felix says it’s to keep people guessing while still being obvious, but Chan thinks its a leftover habit from the early days of their relationship, back when they had first met. And every chance they got, they would flaunt and show their love to and for each other. They just rarely ever did so on social media.

Their relationship was _private_ , but Chan had always thought it was _obvious_.

Chan was slightly detached from the conversation, still listening but not actively so, and only really reacting when he felt that Felix was being picked on. He was deep in thought.

And then, Minho said it.

_“I think you two should really make an official announcement, or something. Way too many people just can’t get it that you two are dating.”_

Chan has heard that suggestion since freshman year. Chan’s told Felix about it since freshman year. Felix always said no, but he was never against the idea of people knowing about their relationship. In fact, he egged it on, but he just wanted to have fun with it. Felix was just cheeky like that; never outright _telling_ people off the bat that Chan was his boyfriend, but always _showing_ it.

And Chan respected Felix’s decisions and consent. Always. He never, ever did anything that involved Felix without the boy’s willing consent first. But this one time, just this once, Chan was just going to do it.

So, with a _“You know what, I really think I should”_ in reply, Chan picked up his phone, opened Instagram, pulled up one of his favourite pictures of them, and pressed ‘post’, setting his phone down on the table and simply letting the app do its work. All while chaos slowly descended onto the group when they realised what Chan meant, and what he was probably doing.

Complete chaos descended when they saw Felix’s phone light up with a notification. Soon, he had Felix hiding into his shoulder as the rest of the group acted like a bunch of hyperactive elementary schoolers as they passed Chan phone around, looking at the post. He knew Felix didn’t really mind what he did. If Felix really was bothered by having their relationship ‘announced’, he would have said so.

Chan had stopped Felix’s fun, sure, but he knew Felix had grown tired of his own game sometime around showcase day. He had a pretty good two-year run, after all. But judging from the smile and the beet red face Felix sported when he finally decided to come out of hiding from Chan’s shoulder, Chan knew that yeah, Felix didn’t mind.

**CB97** so i’ve been told that literally no one believed i was taken? c’mon now, i’ve been telling everyone ever since i was a freshman. so, here everyone has it. this is felix, and i have loved him since i was 18. so, everyone, please stop doubting us.

 **_flreckles_ ** _ily too bubby_ _💛_

 **_hanj.one_ ** _ew it reeks of love in here_ _🤢_

 **_spear.b_ ** _great now can everyone please stop dm-ing me asking me to set you up with chan_

 **_lino_ ** _here we have folks, the campus heartthrob is (and has been) officially off the market_

**Author's Note:**

> oop ok so i might have projected a lil too much when they were talking about the uncertain future of those who choose to study any of the arts ahah as someone who just completed a diploma course in audio production it truly is a struggle yall hopefully the world's situation gets better soon so jobs open up for all of us arts hoes again 😔✊
> 
> this series is, however, STILL not over. again, i still wanna introduce jeongin into this universe somehow, and i've already started chanlix's full backstory (it was touched on briefly in this one ahah). idk when exactly those two will be up esp the jeongin one bc like my brain Broke yall but the chanlix backstory will probably be before the end of the year lmao
> 
> i'm also really sorry if me mentioning child grooming and predatory behaviour left a bad taste in anyone's mouth :(( i know that i’m dealing with an age gap (albeit not too extreme of an age gap) and had chanlix start dating when felix was rather young, so i want to establish that chan in no way ever coerced and manipulated felix into dating him. felix made a very conscious and very thought-out decision when their relationship started, and the love affection and care they feel for each other is all genuine.
> 
> anyway, this piece had a timeline of like what 3 years so that's why its so damn long ahaha i hope yall enjoyed it nonetheless tho. as usual, i'll see yall in the next one! :)
> 
> i never proofread any of my work bc i get shy reading my own work sometimes so do excuse all and any mistakes hehe
> 
> feel free to hmu in the comments or twitter [@5ataen](https://twitter.com/5ataen) if u have questions or just simply wanna vibe ahah


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